TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Russia’s first openly transgender politician has abandoned plans to run for governor, saying the country’s latest anti-LGBTQ bill has eroded the support needed to register her candidacy.
Yulia Alyoshina had planned to represent the opposition Civil Initiative party at the polls in the Altai region of southern Siberia in September, when she will choose a new governor.
Alyoshina intended to fight for LGBTQ rights in the course of her campaign, and she opposed it. a new bill outlaw gender affirmation procedures in Russia. The legislation was initially approved by the lower house of Russia’s parliament, the State Duma, on June 14.
But on Monday, Alyoshina said she had not been able to gather the minimum number of signatures (502) needed from local municipal council members and village heads to participate.
Alyoshina wrote in a Telegram post on Monday that 19 council members “were unequivocally ready to put their signatures in support of my nomination,” while others initially supported her but later backed down, citing the bill banning the transition of gender currently under consideration in the Duma.
Introduced in 2012, Russia’s “municipal filter” forces candidates running for local office to collect signatures of support from members of municipal councils.
The requirement has been criticized by civil rights groups as a means for state officials to ban opposition candidates.
Russia’s LGBTQ community has been under increasing pressure for a decade, with President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church waging a campaign to preserve what they see as the country’s “traditional values.”
The proposed bill prohibits any “medical intervention intended to change a person’s sex,” as well as gender change on official documents and public records.
Senior lawmaker Pyotr Tolstoy, who is among the sponsors of the bill, said the law is aimed at “protecting Russia with its cultural and family values and traditions and stopping the infiltration of Western ideology against the family.”
The bill is due to receive three readings by the State Duma, but there is no doubt that it will pass because it was signed by some 400 members of the 450-seat chamber, including the speaker of the chamber and the leaders of all political factions. .
