Russia has designated the “LGBT movement” on its list of extremist and terror organizations, aligning with a Supreme Court decision last year. State media reported that the “LGBT movement” was added to the list maintained by the Rosfin monitoring agency, which works to combat terror financing and has the power to freeze the bank accounts of over 14,000 entities and individuals designated as extremists. The designation applies to the “international LGBT social movement and its structural units,” according to state news agency RIA.

Treating the LGBT movement as a terrorist organisation is not a Christian approach. But what the LGBT movement is teaching and inflicting upon our children needs to be stopped. Russia supports God’s values on marriage, family, and sex.

 In November, Russia’s Supreme Court ruled LGBT activists as extremists based on a motion filed by the Russian Justice Ministry to ban the movement’s “activity on the territory of the Russian Federation.” According to the human rights group Amnesty International, a person convicted of involvement in LGBT-affiliated “extremist organizations” could face between five to 10 years in prison.

A spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church called the ruling a “form of moral self-defense by society” against attacks on “the Christian idea of marriage and family from the public and legal realms.” This ruling followed a broader trend of tightening restrictions on LGBT expressions in Russia, emphasizing traditional family values. Laws have been enacted against promoting “non-traditional” sexual relations and gender changes, reflecting the government’s stance against Western liberal attitudes.

 The European Union criticized the Supreme Court ruling. “Amid the decades-long crackdown on rights of LGBTIQ persons unleashed under President Putin, this decision aims at further persecuting the LGBTIQ community in Russia,” the EU said in a statement at the time.

“Look at the Holy Scripture,” Putin said at the time. “It says it all, including that family, is the union of a man and a woman, but these sacred texts are now being questioned.”

Source: Christian Post