RUSSIA: GAY PARENT BILL DROPPED

A bill that was set to take children away from their gay or lesbian parents in Russia has been dropped, at least for now.

According to Interfax, the bill proposed by the deputy of the Russian State Duma, Alexey Zhuravlev, failed to secure sufficient support and was withdrawn for redrafting.

Zhuravlyov’s assistant, Sofya Cherepanova, told the news agency that another version of the proposed legislation would be re-introduced in the future.

“The bill has been revoked for improvement because the State Duma committee on family, women and children will not approve it in its current form,” said Cherepanova

She added: “The reason for the revocation of this bill is not a change of my position, but the need to correct some flaws. We are interested in the adoption of this bill, not in PR.”

If it had passed the bill would have amendment the Russian Family Code to allow for the termination of parental rights of people who engage in “non-traditional sexual relations”.

Zhuravlev argues that, like drug addicts and child abusers, gay parents should also have no rights to their children and that the country’s notorious gay propaganda law should be extended to the family.

Under Zhuravlev’s withdrawn bill, if one or both parents are gay or lesbian this would be sufficient reason to strip them of their parental rights.

Zhuravlyov is a member of United Russia, the party that controls a majority in the Duma, the lower house of the legislature.

In June, lawmakers in the Duma voted almost unanimously to pass the bill banning the “propaganda” of “non-traditional sexual relations”.

Russia also recently barred foreign gay and lesbian couples and any individuals living in countries that have legalised same-sex marriages from adopting Russian children to avoid the children experiencing “complexes, emotional suffering and stress”.