Russian Parliament outlaws gender change

The State Duma (the Russian Parliament) gave the third and final reading to the law prohibiting gender change (except for cases of treatment of congenital anomalies and a number of diseases).

Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said that the adoption of the law banning gender change in Russia would protect the citizens of the country, in particular, children. Gender change is a path to the degeneration of a nation, Volodin said.

"Think about it: the number of gender reassignment surgeries in the United States has increased by 50 times over the past 10 years — transgender people (according to 2022 data) 1 million 640 thousand, including 1 million 300 thousand adults (0.5 percent of the adult population) and 340 thousand teenagers (1.4 percent of all US children aged 13-17),” Volodin wrote on Telegram.

The law "On Basics of Health Protection of Citizens in the Russian Federation" will now be supplemented with a new article that prohibits medical interventions, including medications, for gender change purposes. The new prohibitions do not apply to medical interventions associated with the treatment of congenital anomalies, malformations, genetic and endocrine diseases.

In addition, the change of sex by one of the spouses will become a reason for the annulment of marriage. The new regulations will be documented in the Family Code. To crown it all, individuals that have completed the gender transition process will be prohibited from adopting children and establishing guardianship over them. It will be prohibited to change the gender marker in documents, but the norms of the document will not apply to those who have changed their gender before the day when the law comes into force.