Source: HRO.org (info), 09/02/12

· St. Petersburg & Leningrad region  · Sexual minorities

The well-known British actor and writer Stephen Fry has condemned the passing by the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg of a bill that seeks to ban what the bill calls “propaganda of homosexuality and paedophilia”. In his Twitter account (8 February) Stephen Fry describes the initiators and supporters of the bill as “fantastical monsters” and asks whether, for example, talking about Tchaikovsky will now be banned.

According to the bill, passed on 8 February, persons who are found guilty of what the document calls “propaganda of homosexuality and paedophilia” will be punished by a range of fines.

Discussion of the bill by deputies in St. Petersburg was stormy. Representatives of the Yabloko party called on the Assembly not to pass the law on the grounds that in practice it would amount to an approval of discrimination against sexual minorities, Radio Liberty reports.