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LONDON — A Russian poetry competitors has banned transgender folks from submitting entries this yr, in what it says is an effort to guard conventional values.
The Andrei Dementyev All-Russian Poetry Prize, organized by the federal government of western Russia’s Tver area, accepts functions till late April from poets “no matter citizenship, nationality, career and place of residence.”
However the competitors explicitly bars “residents who’ve modified their gender,” in accordance with guidelines posted on the web site of a neighborhood poetry group.
The competitors organizers mentioned the transfer was an effort to “protect the concepts of marriage, household, motherhood, fatherhood and childhood which might be conventional for Russian society”.
Underneath President Vladimir Putin, Russia has engaged in a widespread crackdown on LGBTQ rights, portraying them as a Western invention that threatens conventional Russian values.
Russia has designated what it calls “the worldwide LGBT social motion” as extremist and people supporting it as terrorists, opening up avenues to pursue critical felony instances in opposition to LGBTQ folks and their advocates.
Transgender folks specifically have seen their rights stripped away. Russia final yr banned gender change surgical procedure and hormone remedy and barred trans folks from adopting or fostering kids.
Nef Cellarius, program coordinator for Russian LGBTQ rights group Vykhod (“Coming Out”), instructed Reuters the poetry prize ban is an instance of a rising pattern amongst native officers to showcase their loyalty to the Kremlin on quite a lot of social points.
“As quickly because it turns into recognized that the ‘Tsar’ doesn’t like one thing, your entire state equipment begins to publicly condemn this ‘one thing,’” mentioned Cellarius, who relies in Germany.
The Tver organizers offered no clarification for why it was excluding transgender folks. Named for a neighborhood Soviet-Russian poet, the competitors offers out two predominant awards a yr for works of “simple creative advantage” and “common ethical values.”
Earlier competitions didn’t stipulate a ban on trans contributors, Russian unbiased information outlet Mediazona mentioned.
The prize organizers didn’t reply to a Reuters request for remark.
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