Russian President Vladimir Putin signed new restrictions into law on Monday that dramatically clamp down on transgender individuals inside his country.
The new federal law bans transgender surgeries, transgender hormone therapy, and the use of puberty blockers by transgender individuals, according to the Russian government.
“The only exception to this rule will be medical interventions related to the treatment of congenital physiological abnormalities (defects), as well as genetic and endocrine diseases caused by structural disorders of the reproductive tract in children,” Putin’s office said in a statement. “Such interventions will be allowed in accordance with decisions made by medical commissions of medical organisations within the jurisdiction of the Russian Healthcare Ministry.”
The new law annuls any marriage if a spouse changes their gender, and those who change their gender are automatically “excluded from those who have the right to be adoptive parents, and they cannot be appointed guardians or trustees.”
The 70-year-old president has long fought against transgender ideology, comparing them in 2021 to COVID-19.
“It’s like the coronavirus pandemic,” Putin said at a news conference. “New strains appear, we can’t escape it. It’s necessary to find effective countermeasures.”
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“If someone thinks that women and men are the same thing, then be my guest. But there is common sense,” he said. “I stick to the traditional approach that a woman is a woman, a man is a man, a mom is a mom, and a dad is a dad.”
Putin took exception with male prisoners who have claimed to be transgender so they can be moved into women’s prisons or male athletes who have claimed to be transgender so they can compete against women in sports.
“A man declares himself a woman and competes in weightlifting, let’s say, or some other sport,” he said. “Women’s sport will cease to exist. There has to be some kind of common sense.”
