Talk:LGBT rights in Russia

Questionable sources for claims

A lot of the sources for these claims are straight up mouthpieces for the US government. Pretty sure they can't be trusted to be a neutral source. Idontknowanythingok (talk) 18:13, 2 December 2023 (UTC)

Proof? SageSolomon (talk) 19:38, 2 December 2023 (UTC)

Such as? ~2026-12811-40 (talk) 11:02, 27 February 2026 (UTC)

Public Opinion Foundation (ФОМ) is not a reliable source

I have removed the following content from the Public opinion section of this article:

According to a 2019 poll carried out by the Russian Public Opinion Foundation (FOM), 7% of Russians agreed that same-sex marriages should be allowed in Russia, while 87% opposed the idea.^[1]

The Public Opinion Foundation is not a reliable source. It is a Kremlin-sponsored organization which carries out polls using heavily-biased phrasing and/or outright falsifying poll data: Traditionally, such "polls" with results known in advance [i.e. falsified] have been carried out by Kremlin's usual contractors — Public Opinion Foundation and Russian Public Opinion Research Center. The poll results as presented now do not belong in the article. However, in case somebody wants to reinstate the paragraph and the pie chart with the added context of the extreme unreliability of the polling institution and its data, I have preserved the removed content here. Gremlin of the wiki (talk) 05:02, 25 February 2025 (UTC)

Alice Weidel

Any mention of how Russia supported Alice Weidel (AfD), who is LGBT, in the 2025 German federal elections? 2A00:23C7:58F8:1301:31C9:EBB3:8CF2:3F0D (talk) 17:12, 7 June 2025 (UTC)

Interesting, but this is not very relevant to the topic of the article, which is specifically the rights of sexual minorities in Russia. AndreyKva (talk) 00:53, 8 June 2025 (UTC)

Dispute - LGBTQ people serving in the military

As of writing, the infobox states that:

LGBT people can serve in the army, there are no restrictions.^[1]

Nevermind the LGBT/LGBTQ inconsistency (perhaps 'LGBT' was used in the source?), the cite has befallen wiktim to WP:LINKROT. But we got lucky! There's an archive!

And here's what baffled me. The link... States the exact opposite of the infobox statement. Allow me to translate (no worries, I'm a native speaker):

An important nuance: it is not possible to skirt military service by pretending to be gay. Before being assigned a [military fitness] category, conscripts must undergo an additional medical examination by an experienced psychiatrist and take tests at a psychoneurological clinic. If the test results confirm homosexual preferences, [what this could possibly imply or mean, I leave up to you, the reader] the homosexual will not be accepted into the military.

The situation is similar for young men who have been diagnosed by psychologists or psychiatrists with other gender identity disorders:

Transsexualism – the feeling of belonging to the opposite sex. A person may seek to change their sex or outwardly conform to their feeling (wearing clothes of the opposite sex, adopting mannerisms and gestures).

Transvestism – the person is aware of their sexual identity [Russian sources are allergic to 'gender'] and does not seek to get rid of primary or secondary sexual characteristics. They may resemble the opposite sex in appearance, including their clothing and mannerisms.

Gay, transgender, and transvestite individuals are exempt from military service after completing an additional medical examination referred by the military commissariat. If the conscript's orientation is confirmed, he will receive a so-called "white" military ID card with a fitness category of В - limited fitness for military service, or Д - unfit for military service due by psychiatric criteria.

I've got lived experience regarding this very specific 'practice' in Russia, and can confirm that it is accurate in that, generally, the military does not permit 'confirmed' queer people - whoever claims to be queer are seen as draft evaders and are sent to the "crazy house" as a form of hazing ritual. If you pass it though, you're out... for a year or two, then they send you back.

Essentially, what this article says is not that "LGBT people can serve in the army", but rather that "you have to have a diagnosis of being LGBT to be cleared from the draft". But most importantly: NO, you cannot serve in the army if you're LGBT according to the cited article, or at least if you're G/T, since it doesn't mention lesbians (cis women aren't drafted) or bisexuals (whom they do not acknowledge as real). No idea where "with no restrictions" came from either because there are definitely restrictions and this article wouldn't lead you to think otherwise if you read it.

I'd feel more comfortable if we found some more sources about this thing though, especially post-war, or some input. So I'll be putting a dispute inline on the affected cites linking here. I'll see if anyone cares - if not, I'll just BOLD it. Drunk Experiter (she/her) (talk) 14:23, 4 October 2025 (UTC)

Well, first, this is a bad source for this claim. A couple of better ones:

• https://holod.media/2022/09/22/lgbt-army-2/ -- officially, there are no restrictions for LGBT people but officially declaring one's homosexuality leads to a confinement in a psychiatric ward and a diagnosis of "egodystonic sexual orientation", which leads to being assigned category V (partially suitable for military service; relieved of conscription during peaceful time) or D (not suitable for military service). Also one can declare themself a pacifist and try to get to the alternative service.
• https://msk1.ru/text/world/2022/09/23/71678966/ -- there is no direct basis for draft deflection based on sexual orientation, but pacifist views are a valid reason. Also, transwomen can be drafted unless they undergo a psych commission evaluation.
• https://comingoutspb.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/pismo_o_situaczii_rf_iyun_25.pdf or in English https://comingoutspb.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/situation-in-russia-july-25.pdf -- "In Russia, military service is compulsory for all men, including gay and bisexual men and transgender women with a male legal gender marker, which puts them at risk of conscription for military service in Ukraine. Conscientious objection on the grounds of anti-war views in this case could lead to criminal prosecution and imprisonment. For LGBTQ+ people in Russia, particularly transgender women, imprisonment is inseparable from maltreatment, humiliation, and abuse, including sexual abuse, in places of confinement."

Le Loy (talk) 21:55, 4 October 2025 (UTC)

Disclosure: this edit was made after seeing a subsequently deleted question asked at the Wikimedia Discord server. Le Loy (talk) 21:58, 4 October 2025 (UTC)

I agree, it's a pretty bad source, and it certainly doesn't seem reliable based on how it refers to queer people, unlike the sources you stated. Vikhod is a very reliable organisation for this topic in particular.

I think there's a caveat: de jure gay and bisexual people are allowed to serve in the military, but de facto they are often stopped, prohibited or restricted, and being gay is regularly treated as a way to avoid the draft even by legal authorities - though it's not enshrined in law, and in practice psychiatrists and military officials collude to give queer people inaccurate diagnoses to prevent them from serving in the military.

With trans women it's a bit muddier. You can theoretically be drafted/join the military if you're a closeted trans woman, yes, but legally, 'transsexuals' are prohibited from serving in the military, and the psych commission evaluation is a mandatory requirement for anyone who's claiming any kind of psychiatric diagnosis as grounds for avoiding the draft. In Russia, having a diagnosis (with F64.0 Transsexualism being considered a mental illness) is a prerequisite to being considered "trans" legally (and often socially in my experience), so I would say that de jure transgender people are forbidden from serving in the military.

This issue is somewhat nuanced and I think we should work out a way to state these different interpretations of the law concisely in the article.

I'd suggest something like:

Gays, lesbians and bisexuals allowed to serve de jure, military service banned de facto

or alternatively

Sexual orientation: Yes de jure, no de facto

Gender identity: No

Using the 3 sources you listed. I'm not sure whether we should entirely get rid of the one I originally quoted. Based on the fact it was deleted, and that it partially contradicts the ones you've sent and uses unreliable language, I wouldn't be prejudiced to removing that source from the article outright. Drunk Experiter (she/her) (talk) 14:41, 5 October 2025 (UTC)

Well, all of these three say that military service is not prohibited for gay men so I don't think there are grounds to say "no de-facto", but I think this wording is acceptable with an inline comment with details, and if the article is describing this issue in detail, including the psych ward confinement with subsequent "category V" assignment.

The current source is just outright not a RS so I've replaced it with Coming Out's report. @Drunk Experiter please check. If you think I made it worse, please revert the wording back to the original state (with a new source). Le Loy (talk) 06:47, 12 October 2025 (UTC)

@Le Loy: I agree that the original source isn't RS, however I wouldn't consider Coming Out's report as sufficient (or supporting) of the statement "LGBT people can serve in the army, no legal restrictions."

This is what Coming Out's report states, on pg. 9:

Under the existing Russian legislation, employers are responsible for maintaining military registration records of their employees. If an employee with a male legal gender marker is absent from the register, the administrative liability for the offense lies with the employer. Following the introduction of the ban on gender transition, agencies responsible for supervision of military registration records under the Ministry of Defense require all transgender men to undergo mandatory in-person psychiatric assessments before they can be added to the register. Transgender women are expected to meet similar requirements in order to be removed from the military register.20 Thus, transgender people are forced to undergo compulsory medical assessments to access their employment rights. In most regions of the country, such assessments are accompanied by violations of human dignity perpetrated by medical professionals. Only in Moscow, the Ministry of Defense opened a specialist department for psychiatric assessments of transgender people, where patients are not subjected to additional violations of their rights beyond the forced medical assessment itself.

and on pg. 10:

It must be noted that LGBTQ+ people in modern day Russia face secondary risks and vulnerability posed by the war in Ukraine and the overall threat of military conscription. In Russia, military service is compulsory for all men, including gay and bisexual men and transgender women with a male legal gender marker, which puts them at risk of conscription for military service in Ukraine. Conscientious objection on the grounds of anti-war views in this case could lead to criminal prosecution and imprisonment.

The rest of the report by Coming Out corroborates that LGBTQ+ people face significant legal and practical challenges for showing any evidence of queerness, so it's safe to assume, in my opinion, that there are at least restrictions.

One I'm fairly certain of is that legally, an F64.0 Transsexualism diagnosis is grounds for category V. You can find this in Article 18 "Personality disorders" of the appendix to the regulations on medical examination approved by Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 565 of July 4, 2013; as can be seen on pg. 42 of this annotated scan of the document by the St. Petersburg regional public human rights organization “Soldiers' mothers of St. Petersburg”: https://soldiersmothers.ru/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/raspisanie-boleznej.pdf

You can also find this on a few other resources, however they are less reliable: https://voenkom-garant.ru/statya-18/ / http://army-help.ru/raspisanie-bolezney/stat.php?number=18 / https://povestok.net/raspisanie/statya-18/

The MSK1 source you listed previously also confirms this, in my opinion, by stating that diagnosed or openly transgender women are typically cleared from the draft. Keep in mind that, even when RS states that 'sexual orientation does not legally prohibit military service' (per MSK1), being transgender is distinct from sexual orientation and comes with its own legal challenges.

I would still argue that Holod and MSK1 point to LGB's having de facto precedent for being refused military service/avoiding the draft, and I still believe that transgender (or "Transsexualist") people are restricted from military service. I would argue that those sources, as well as the legal regulations on medical examination for the military commissariat of the Russian Federation, contradict the statement in the article, creating a disputed statement. For these reasons, I have returned the dispute inline templates, however I didn't revert so to preserve the Coming Out reference, since it is more reliable (if less on-topic/specific) than the previous source. I suggest that the statement either be edited or consensus around keeping this statement is established before removing the dispute. Drunk Experiter (she/her) (talk) 10:02, 12 October 2025 (UTC)

Cheers! Maybe someone else will come up with a better phrasing. Le Loy (talk) 01:05, 13 October 2025 (UTC)

I found another source in LGBTQ rights in Europe#Eastern Europe, that alleges there are no legal restrictions: https://news.rambler.ru/other/37592962-derzhite-yazyk-za-zubami-pravda-o-gomoseksualistah-v-rossiyskoy-armii/

This source reads more like an opinion piece or blog. It states that "homosexualism is not considered a disease [...] [in] Russia", and that "the grounds for exemption from military service are so-called sexual preference disorders, which include fetishism, sadomasochism, pedophilia, transvestism, exhibitionism, voyeurism, and others, including “unspecified” disorders". This refers to the F65 Disorders of sexual preference code in the ICD-10, under Mental and behavioural disorders. I've previously stated that F64 Gender identity disorders is also grounds for exemption. This article seems to also state that gay tops are allegedly less-discriminated than bottoms? It is a very strange article and seems somewhat unencyclopedic, but besides that point, it speaks exclusively of homosexuality in men and MSM. There is zero mention of lesbians, bisexuals, trans people or queer people. So I would extend this dispute to that article as well. I still fundamentally disagree that gay men are welcomed with open arms into the ranks of the VSRF, but I think there is clear evidence of trans people being legally restricted from the military (if they are known, and identified to be, trans).

In addition to this, I will be putting this topic up on WP:3O. It's been almost a month since this last had any motion and there's been no third opinion; and I don't think this is RfC worthy. @Le Loy - notifying you of the 3O. Drunk Experiter (she/her) (talk) 20:53, 7 November 2025 (UTC)

Response to third opinion request:

Based solely on the sources I've seen in this thread, I don't see any other way to word the statement other than the way it is currently in the article. Maybe if other sources are identified that establish that gays people are frequently labelled with psychological disorders or otherwise prohibited from serving in the military by some mechanism that isn't enforced by law, we could change the wording to your proposed statement. The issue is that I didn't see any sources for the 'de facto' part. The Holod article talks about how an individual, if they wish to not be drafted to can exploit the homophobia to obtain a diagnosis and be excluded, which doesn't say anything about say an gay person who wishes to participate in the Russian military. The MSK article talks about transgender women, so that question is less clear. It's worth noting that these articles are written from the perspective of someone who doesn't want to be drafted and is trying to find out a way to get excluded from the draft. Katzrockso (talk) 06:11, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

I would argue the question of whether transgender women are legally forbidden from joining the military is pretty clear. Here is a report by Quarteera called "LGBTQ+ RIGHTS IN THE BELIGGERENT RUSSIA", which could prove to be very useful for this article since it deals with repression of queer and trans people, but it also states that:

https://quarteera.de/files/materialen/Die_Lage_von_LGBTQ_Personen_im_kriegsfuehrenden_Russland_EN.pdf

[...] the diagnosis F64.0—an analogue of the diagnosis “Gender Incongruence”—influences the medical classification and requires to recognize a person with this diagnosis as unfit for military service (in accordance with the “Schedule of Diseases”—a document regulating the category of fitness for military service in the Russian Federation).

However, does so in the context of:

“Delo LGBT+” summarizes that in 2023 among more than 15% of their consultations were related to the arbitrariness of military commissariats, including 7% of judicial cases.

According to this article by Quarteera, as well as what I've known from my lived experience, it can be led to conclude that (A) officially diagnosed trans people are unfit for service and (B) government and healthcare are hesitant to give out official diagnoses, leading to arbitrary enforcement of such.

An article on mobilization.guide states in regarding to transfeminine people:

https://mobilization.guide/abe7451acfca4ec8a64c0c6220322cd0

You can obtain a category V or D of fitness in accordance with the Schedule of Diseases (see points “a” and “b” of Article 18). You can obtain an F64 diagnosis from friendly psychiatrists in order to qualify for this article of the Schedule of Diseases. In addition, category D is assigned under clause “a” of Article 82 of the Schedule of Diseases (“absence of a penis”). Transgender people with unchanged documents who have undergone vaginoplasty may insist on being assigned category D for this reason.

Additionally, on transmasculine people:

Human rights activists from Center T are not aware of any cases where transmasculine people with an M marker in their documents have been recruited into the Russian army.

It is important to prepare medical documents in advance that would be sufficient to assign you a non-conscription category of fitness. Fitness categories V or D can be obtained in accordance with the Schedule of Diseases (see paragraphs “a” and “b” of Article 18). You can obtain an F64 diagnosis from friendly psychiatrists in order to qualify for this article of the Schedule of Diseases. Transmasculine people with changed documents, including those who have undergone phalloplasty, may insist on being assigned category D under clause “a” of Article 82 of the Schedule of Diseases.

This affirms what MSK1 and the appendix to the regulations on medical examination stated. I don't know, I would not keep the current statement unless it were at least changed to "LGB" instead of "LGBT". The only kind of 'trans person' that could serve is one that was pre-transition, undiagnosed and closeted, which I do not think counts towards permission ("can be drafted unless they undergo a psych commission evaluation"), because they are functionally not trans on paper and are not considered as such by authorities. But if the authorities do deem you trans, or of having F64.0 Transsexualism, you would be unfit for service.

For precedent in other articles, see: LGBTQ rights in the United States, LGBTQ rights in Mongolia, LGBTQ rights in Taiwan which explicitly exclude or ban trans people, LGBTQ rights in Italy, LGBTQ rights in Luxembourg, LGBTQ rights in Albania, LGBTQ rights in Moldova, LGBTQ rights in Kazakhstan, LGBTQ rights in Vietnam which only state that military is legal for lesbian, gay and/or bisexual people. Drunk Experiter (she/her) (talk) 20:32, 9 November 2025 (UTC)