LGBTQ media outlet Parni+ and the Moscow Community Centre have been designated extremist organisations.

The Zavodsky District Court of Oryol region has upheld the Ministry of Justice’s lawsuit and banned “Parni+” as an extremist organisation. The queer media outlet reports this themselves.

“According to the case materials, if LGBTQ people talk about themselves, that means they are ‘promoting visibility’; if they speak about discrimination, it means ‘they set themselves against the state’; if they use inclusive language, then ‘they undermine traditional values.’ They are trying to label the visibility, voice and experience of the LGBTQ community as ‘extremism,’” notes “Parni+.”

The media outlet stated that it will continue to operate.

16:31 The Moscow City Court has declared the Moscow Community Centre for LGBT+ initiatives an extremist organisation. The Centre itself reports this.

The Community Centre will continue its work.

• In recent months, the Ministry of Justice has sought to ban several LGBTQ+ organisations. These include the largest interregional movement, the “Russian LGBT Network,” the trans assistance project “Centre T,” the movement “Callistro” in Yaroslavl (a city in western Russia), the “Irida” organisation in Samara (a city on the Volga River), and the T9 NSK project in Novosibirsk (a major city in Siberia).
• The “Vykhod” group in St Petersburg and the “Resource Centre for LGBT” in Yekaterinburg (a major city in the Urals) have already been declared extremist.

The news headline was changed after information emerged about the decision concerning the Moscow Community Centre.