On 28 May, the Kerch City Court in occupied Crimea upheld a fine against local resident Irina Khokhatkina: 100,000 roubles (approximately US$1,100) for posting memes featuring men in wedding dresses. This information appeared on the court’s website and was noted by Verstka media.
Khokhatkina was found guilty under the so-called “LGBTQ propaganda” article (part 3, article 6.21, Code of Administrative Offences). The grounds were two posts on VKontakte. In one of them, there were four memes featuring men in wedding dresses with captions: “Why should I invite you on a date?,” “I was waiting for you to make the first move,” “Let’s split the bill,” and “Prove and show that you need me.” According to the court’s decision, the memes “show the appearance of men with characteristics that, in Russian culture, do not correspond to the image of a man of traditional sexual orientation,” and also display “traditional feminine traits and features.”
The other post that caught the attention of law enforcement was a video “showing two girls in bed, naked and kissing.”
The case was initially tried in a magistrate’s court. In her appeal, Khokhatkina noted that the memes with men in wedding dresses were a repost from a public page about relationships between men and women and remain publicly accessible.
Asya Sokolova for OVD-Info
The adoption of the “LGBT propaganda” law marked not only widespread censorship but also intensified repression against LGBTQ people and the organisations that support them. With the designation of the “International LGBT Movement” as an “extremist organisation,” this pressure has increased once again.
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