(Reuters) – Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Thursday it had detained a transgender man and LGBT activist on suspicion of treason for allegedly donating money to support the Ukrainian army.
In a statement, the FSB drew attention to the suspect’s gender identity, describing him as “an activist of the LGBT movement who had previously changed his gender from a woman to a man”.
It did not name the man, who it said was a volunteer for the OVD-Info rights organisation and ran an unspecified “anti-Russian information resource”.
A spokesperson for OVD-Info said the organisation had thousands of volunteers and did not yet know who the arrested person was.
Russia increased the maximum sentence for treason to life imprisonment in April. Previously it was 20 years.
There was no indication that the arrested man would be charged under Russia’s law against “LGBT propaganda”, which effectively bans any public expression of LGBT behaviour or lifestyle.
President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly portrayed the acceptance of gay and transgender people in Western countries as evidence of moral decay. Draft legislation that would prevent people changing their gender in ID documents or undergoing gender surgery is making its way through Russia’s parliament.
(Reporting by Mark Trevelyan and Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Gareth Jones)
