The Russian Supreme Court held a four-hour session on Thursday behind closed doors to officially announce another major blow to the LGBTQ+ community.  It was the result of a lawsuit brought by the Ministry of Justice who had decided  ‘the activities of the international L.G.B.T.Q. movement had exhibited “various signs and manifestations of an extremist orientation, including incitement of social and religious hatred.”

Under the ruling, any news organization, blogger, or even an individual posting some form of public message that mentions the international L.G.B.T.Q. movement without noting the extremist designation could face a stiff fine.

Gay rights activists and other experts say the ruling will put gay people and their organizations at risk of being criminally prosecuted for something as simple as displaying symbols like the rainbow flag or for endorsing the statement “Gay rights are human rights.”   The New York Times confirmed that soon after the decision, the official RIA Novosti news agency began referring to the movement as an extremist organization in its reports on the ruling.

This comes a few days after Deputy Minister of Justice, Andrei Loginov, testified before the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva that, in Russia, “the rights of L.G.B.T. people are protected,” saying that “restraining public demonstrations of nontraditional sexual relations or preferences is not a form of censure for them.”

Last summer, the authorities began issuing fines for what they deemed to be such propaganda in films and television series online. Then, in July, Mr. Putin signed a law banning medical gender transitions or changing genders on official documents.

The rest of the world, particularly the global LGBTQ+ community really needs to take note. As extremist as these views are they are not exclusively Russian.  This point of view is shared by Mike Johnson, DeSantis, and SCOTUS Justices Barrett, Alito, and Thomas.  And God forbid that Trump, returns as he hails Putin as a great hero,