Petition To Protect Transgender Adoption Rights Reaches 70,000 Signatures

More than 70,000 people have signed a petition to protect the rights of transgender people to marry and adopt in Russia.

The openly-anti LGBTQ+ country is considering passing a bill that would take away these rights, in addition to banning same-sex marriage and undoing existing gender recognition policy.

Current laws in Russia allow people to legally change their gender by undergoing psychiatric evaluation and medical treatment. The new proposed legislation would place an outright ban on updating the sex marker on a birth certificate, and also reverse all birth certificate gender changes that have already taken place.

“Regressive And Harmful”

“The proposed amendments to the family code are intentionally regressive and harmful,” said Graeme Reid, LGBT Rights Director at Human Rights Watch.

“Deliberately creating more barriers for legal gender recognition and parenting rights for transgender people only further marginalizes an already-embattled community.”

Related stories:

• PROTESTS PLANNED AS UK GOVERNMENT BACKTRACKS ON TRANSGENDER RIGHTS REFORMS
• A SERIES TO HELP PARENTS UNDERSTAND THEIR LGBTQ CHILD: HARM REDUCTION
• TRANS MAN GIVES BIRTH TO BABY, SHARES STORIES OF VILE ABUSE HE RECEIVED

Transgender Adoption Rights

Human Rights Watch has described the new bill as the latest in a string of actions by the government to “trample human rights.”

“Further restricting the rights of transgender people in the name of ‘traditional values’ in Russia does nothing but harm a group of vulnerable people,” said Reid.

Russia already has an outright ban on “gay propaganda,” which makes it illegal to portray same-sex relationships in public or in the presence of children. The law is regularly used to discriminate against and criminalize LGBTQ+ people.

Click here to sign the petition.