Lire la version en français / Hier auf Deutsch lesen
Some folks reading this have children. Others don’t.
There are lots of reasons why your family is made up as it is, and frankly, it’s none of my business what those reasons are. It’s up to you, not me. It’s personal.
And no government or politicians should be telling you or me to have children or not. Nor should authorities be attacking or stigmatizing people for having, or not having, children.
These are basic concepts of individual freedom, privacy, and non-discrimination – understood widely around the world, though apparently not by authorities in Russia.
A new draft law, which passed its first vote in Russia’s State Duma last week, aims to ban “propaganda” about so-called child-free lifestyles.
Under the law, there would be widespread censorship of anything that suggests not having children is okay. Whether you’re speaking earnestly or jokingly, you can’t imply being childless is acceptable. The ban would cover mass media, advertising, publishing, film, and the internet. Stiff fines would await individuals, organizations, and companies who fall afoul of the new law.
If you want to understand how this censorship would work in practice and what its impacts would be, look at the similarly framed ban on “gay propaganda” in Russia. For more than a decade, this law has prohibited all public information, representations, or activities in support of LGBT folks, that is lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.
To avoid penalties, Russian publishers have been recalling books with content on LGBT people. Book stores and libraries have been put under tremendous pressure. Earlier this year, for example, a court in the city of Nizhny Novgorod fined a bookstore chain 500,000 rubles (about US$5,155) for selling a novel including depictions of same-sex relations.
Russian courts have also been increasingly fining television channels and streaming services featuring LGBT people.
And, of course, it’s not just about the censorship and the fines in themselves. It’s also about the stigma they create. With representations of LGBT people erased from public view, society gets the message LGBT people are unacceptable. It’s unsurprising the law helped usher in “a decade of violence” and hate crimes against LGBT people in Russia.
The newly proposed ban on “propaganda” about so-called child-free lifestyles comes with similar issues and risks.
Both moves are part of what Russian authorities say is a defense of “traditional values” and “family values,” but of course, they decide what’s “traditional” and what’s not. As we’ve discussed before in the Daily Brief, the word “tradition” is all too often used to try to justify human rights abuses.
Rather than bringing in yet another wave of mass censorship and making more people scapegoats and targets of hate, Russian authorities should just leave people alone.
Who you love and whether you have children or not – these things are not any government’s business, and authorities should stay out of it.
