Expand / Collapse search
Watch TV
Menu

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2024 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.

World

Orthodox activists attack Russian "kissing" protest against anti-gay law

Associated Press
Published | Updated
  • 017cceeb-Russia Gay Rights
    Image 1 of 2

    An Orthodox activist, right, reacts with a gay rights campaigner, during a protest outside of State Duma, Russian Parliament's lower chamber, in downtown Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013. A federal law banning "homosexual propaganda" has been submitted to the Duma late last year and hailed by officials and Russia's dominant Orthodox Church. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev) (The Associated Press)

  • 993ed817-Russia Gay Rights
    Image 2 of 2

    Gay rights campaigners kiss each other during a protest outside of State Duma, Russian Parliament's lower chamber, in downtown Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013. A federal law banning "homosexual propaganda" has been submitted to the Duma late last year and hailed by officials and Russia's dominant Orthodox Church. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev) (The Associated Press)

MOSCOW – Militant Orthodox activists have attacked members of Russia's embattled gay community protesting against a planned law banning "gay propaganda".

Russia's Parliament is to consider a federal law that makes public events and dissemination of information on the LGBT community to minors punishable by fines of up to $16,000. Lawmakers, officials and Russia's dominant Orthodox church have hailed the law saying it will boost Russia's dwindling birth rates.

A dozen LGBT rights campaigners gathered Tuesday in front of the parliament building in Moscow to protest the law by kissing each other. But a similar number of young men interrupted the protest, assaulting the campaigners, taking away and tearing down their posters and shouting obscenities at them.

Russia decriminalized homosexuality in 1993, but homophobia remains strong.