A Russian newspaper has been fined for
violating the nation's law prohibiting “gay propaganda” to
minors.
The Federal Mass Media Inspection
Service (FMMIS), the Russian agency that oversees enforcement of the
law, on Monday fined Alexander Suturin, editor-in-chief of the Molodi
Dalnevostochnik newspaper, 50,000 rubles.
After the paper ran a story about a
teacher in the city of Khabarovsk who was fired over his sexual
orientation, Suturin received a notice from the FMMIS claiming the
story broke the law.
Alexander Yermoshki, an eighth-grade
geography teacher and a gay rights activist, was let go after
teaching in the same school for 18 years. Yermoshki was the target
of a group called the Movement Against Sexual Perversions, which
asked for his removal because he could influence children into
thinking that “nontraditional relations are as normal as
traditional ones.”
Molodoi Dalnevostochnik quoted
Yermoshki saying, “My very existence is effective proof that
homosexuality is normal.”
The regional office of the FMMIS
charged that the statement “goes against logic. By offering it to
underage readers, the author is misleading them about the normality
of homosexuality. According to the author's logic, it would be
possible to call normal and even effective the existence of rapists
and serial killers.”
The paper faced fines of up to 1 million
rubles and being forced to shut down for 90 days.