The St. Petersburg City Court declared the Alliance of Heterosexuals and LGBT for Equality an “extremist” organization and banned its activities in Russia. The city courts’ joint press service reported this in the Max messenger.
The court granted a lawsuit filed by the Justice Ministry’s branch for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region. The court said the hearings were held behind closed doors because the case file contained classified documents.
The alliance said the claim was marked “top secret,” which meant the project’s representatives were unable to review the case materials. It also said the court rejected motions to involve them in the proceedings as interested parties.
“Hearing the case in closed session and under a secrecy designation effectively deprived Alliance representatives of the opportunity to challenge the accusations, present evidence, and take part in adversarial proceedings. We were effectively denied the right to use our defense,” the organization said.
The Alliance of Heterosexuals and LGBT for Equality was created in 2012 in response to St. Petersburg’s law banning “LGBT propaganda.” A year later, the State Duma adopted a similar measure nationwide. The project carried out public education and advocacy work and also provided legal and psychological support to LGBTQ activists.
In 2021, VKontakte blocked the alliance’s public page, citing a 2019 court ruling from Chelyabinsk that administrators said they had never been notified about. The Chelyabinsk Regional Court later overturned the block because of violations by prosecutors. In 2023, the Justice Ministry added the alliance to the “foreign agents” register.
According to the project, it became the tenth LGBTQ organization banned in Russia in recent months.