Russian newspaper fined for violating country’s anti-gay propaganda law

MOSCOW — A Russian newspaper has become the first media organization to be fined under the country’s anti-gay propaganda law after it profiled an openly gay teacher.

Alexander Suturin, editor-in-chief of the Molodoi Dalnevostochnik newspaper in the Russian Far East, was fined 50,000 rubles ($1,400 USD) Monday by the Federal Mass Media Inspection Service, the Russian Federal media watchdog agency that oversees enforcement of the law.

The newspaper came under scrutiny for alleged violation of the country’s anti-gay “propaganda” law after it profiled Alexander Yermoshkin, an a openly gay middle school teacher who was fired from his job after a group of 678 residents of Khabarovsk, calling itself the Movement Against Sexual Perversions, complained to the school where he had been employed, asking for his termination.

The group alleged Yermoshkin could exert a negative influence on the children and make them think that “nontraditional relations are as normal as traditional ones.”

http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2014/01/russian-newspaper-fined-for-violating-countrys-anti-gay-propaganda-law/