Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law that outlaws adoption by people from countries where gender-affirming care is legal.

The law passed parliament earlier this month after the State Duma (the lower house) unanimously approved the legislation. Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said the bill was aimed at protecting children who can’t protect themselves, characterizing “the West’s policy towards children” as “destructive.”

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“It is necessary to do everything so that new generations of our citizens grow up oriented toward traditional family values,” Volodin wrote in a Telegram post.

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State Duma deputies noted that the bill is aimed at preventing members of the LGBTQ+ community from adopting Russian children and that it also effectively bans adoption by citizens of NATO member states.

The law will apply to at least 15 countries, mainly in Europe, according to CBS News (people from the United States have been banned from adopting Russian children since 2012).

The bill is just the latest in Russia’s ongoing crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights. In 2013, Putin signed a law banning so-called LGBTQ+ “propaganda” in the presence of minors. That same year, he signed a law prohibiting adoption of Russian children by same-sex foreign couples whose homeland recognizes their union as marriage, as well as by single people or unmarried couples from those countries.

In late 2022, Putin signed a new law expanding the country’s definition of what constitutes LGBTQ+ “propaganda” to include any “promotion” of homosexuality in public, online, or in media. The law also bans the “demonstration” of homosexuality to children. The 2022 law effectively outlaws any public expression of LGBTQ+ life in Russia.

Last November, the Russian Supreme Court declared the “international LGBT social movement” an “extremist organization,” effectively giving authorities wide latitude to arrest and prosecute members of the LGBTQ+ community. In the year since the court’s decree, there have been multiple raids on LGBTQ+ bars and other establishments in cities across Russia, and multiple people have been arrested and charged under the country’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws.

Putin signed the anti-trans bill the same day he also signed legislation to ban the spread of “propaganda” that promotes not having children.

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