Human rights chief reacts to call for ‘sexual orientation’ checks of officials
The head of Russia’s Human Rights Council, Valery Fadeev on Tuesday dismissed a call to check the sexual orientation of government officials as both dubious and impractical.
His statement came after several Russian MPs, including the Head of the Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications, floated the idea of determining candidates’ sexual preferences before appointing them to government positions.
“I have a question: how does one check a person’s sexual orientation? I believe it would be unnecessary, and I am afraid that it would be rather difficult to check,” Fadeev told the Govorit Moskva radio station.
Authorities should ultimately decide whether to appoint openly gay men. “However, I am not sure that introducing specific checks would be fair from a legal standpoint and I am not sure that it would even be realistic,” he added.
In 2022, Russia expanded its existing ban on ‘gay propaganda’ to minors and outlawed it altogether. Last year, Russia’s top court banned ‘the international LGBT movement’.
High-profile MP Aleksandr Khinstein recently alleged that “the gay lobby” has been trying to infiltrate government institutions. He accused two officials in charge of youth policies in Samara Region, both of whom have since resigned, of being gay.
Conservative legislator Vitaly Milonov said on Tuesday that “all officials and MPs of all levels” should be subjected to “a set of tests” to determine if they are gay. “A psychologist can examine them,” he added.
