2014 Reports

Transnational LGBT Activism and the Sochi Olympics: Opportunity or Backlash?

Udensiva-Brenner, Masha

On June 30, 2013, Russia's President Vladimir Putin enacted a law banning the "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations to minors" in Russia. The language of the law is vague—there is no definition of what constitutes "propaganda"—and it is uncertain how the government plans to implement it, as few people have been prosecuted thus far. But the effects of the legislation have been tremendous; it has unleashed a wave of homophobic sentiment, often violent, across the country.