A court in Russia has designated a prominent LGBTQ+ rights organization as “extremist” in a secret trial, the first documented case targeting a group following the country’s Supreme Court ruling in 2023 that outlawed the so-called “international LGBT movement.”

That decision, also labeling the “international LGBT movement” as “extremist,” effectively banned LGBTQ+ activism in the country.

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On Tuesday, the St. Petersburg City Court barred the advocacy group Coming Out from operating in the country, the Associated Press reports. The judgment was based on a lawsuit filed in February by Russia’s Justice Ministry, which was classified as secret. The court declined to release any details of the ruling.

Shortly after the Supreme Court’s ruling in 2023, which also declared the rainbow flag to be a forbidden symbol of the “LGBT movement,” several convictions were obtained based on the designation, including one for a woman who wore rainbow earrings in a cafe and another for an individual who published a rainbow flag on a social media page.

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Those convictions earned short detentions and fines for the accused.

Coming Out is the first organization designated as “extremist” under the Supreme Court’s ruling; two other groups now in court face similar lawsuits.

The advocacy group, which provides legal and counseling services to LGBTQ+ Russians from abroad, said it would continue operating.

“We have been preparing for this development for a long time. We enhanced security, developed sustainable work formats, and continue to act responsibly, first and foremost for those who count on us,” the group said in a statement.

“Today, it is especially important not to give in to fear and not to be alone. Our community is stronger than any labels, and history has proven that,” they said.

Coming Out was formerly based in St. Petersburg, where Tuesday’s judgment was handed down. The group has operated outside the country since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which inspired a redoubling of persecution of the LGBTQ+ community as President Vladimir Putin depicted the war as a defense of Russia against decadent Western values.

The Russian authorities are seeking to make the LGBTQ+ community “as vulnerable, as lonely as possible,” said Coming Out’s executive director, Denis Oleinik.

For years now, LGBTQ+ Russians have been dragged into a sometimes-Kafkaesque nightmare, as officials try to purge them from society based on perverse interpretations of the law.

The Supreme Court’s original designation of an “international LGBT movement” as extremist is just one case in point. In a secret trial in 2023, the court named the so-called “movement” as the defendant, then bolstered the case against it when “the defendant party failed to appear.” Following the conviction, the court refused to disclose the text of the judgment against it or the reasons for the decision.

Coming Out’s Oleinik said their own “extremist” designation wouldn’t deter the group from continuing their work.

While the ruling is a kind of scarlet letter intended to isolate the group — by drying up fundraising and discouraging other organizations from working with them — Oleinik said the designation left room to fulfill their mission.

“We can provide help, and receiving our help is also allowed,” he said.

Putin’s anti-LGBTQ+ crusade first gained momentum in 2013 with his national ban on sharing “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” with minors. The prohibition effectively criminalized Pride parades and any public displays of affection by gay people in Russia.

In 2022, the Duma expanded the propaganda ban to include all ages, criminalizing “any action or the spreading of any information that is considered an attempt to promote homosexuality in public, online, or in films, books, or advertising.”

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