Russian gay propaganda law

The Russian federal law "for the Purpose of Protecting Children from Information Advocating a Denial of Traditional Family Values", also referred to in English-language media as Russia's gay propaganda law or anti-gay law, is a bill that was unanimously approved by the State Duma on 11 June 2013 (with just one MP abstaining—Ilya Ponomarev), then unanimously approved by the Federation Council on 27 June 2013 and was signed into law by President Vladimir Putin on 30 June 2013. The Russian government's stated purpose for the law is to protect children from being exposed to homosexuality—condemn presenting homosexuality as being a norm in society—under the argument that it contradicts traditional family values. The statute amended the country's child protection law and the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses, to prohibit the distribution of "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships" among minors. This definition includes materials that "raises interest in" such relationships, cause minors to "form non-traditional sexual predispositions", or "[present] distorted ideas about the equal social value of traditional and non-traditional sexual relationships." Businesses and organizations can also be forced to temporarily cease operations if convicted under the law, and foreigners may be arrested and detained for up to 15 days then deported, or fined up to 5,000 rubles and deported. The Kremlin's backing of the law appealed to the Russian nationalist far-right. The law was condemned by the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe (of which Russia was a member at the time of the bill's approval), by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and by human rights groups, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The statute was criticized for its broad and ambiguous wording (including the aforementioned "raises interest in" and "among minors"), which many critics characterized as being an effective ban on publicly promoting the rights and culture of the LGBT community.