School Children's Drawings of LGBT in Russia Are Seized By Police

Photo: Some of the tolerance-themed posters / ura.ru

Freemuse.org

Schoolchildren’s drawings depicting same-sex couples and rainbows have been seized by Russian police and checked by psychologists to see if they propagate “non-traditional values”, local news site URA reported on 29 November 2018.

The 17 drawings in question were made by fifth to eleventh grade students as part of a drawing competition with the theme of ‘world tolerance’ at school 115 in Yekaterinburg in east Russia.

URA reported on the exhibition on 28 November, saying 10 drawings had images of rainbows and one ninth grade student had made a poster depicting figures of two females and two males, titled ‘We are not given to choose appearance, orientation or race. We are all unique in our own way’.

Later that day, Russian police seized 17 drawings “for verification” and interviewed the school principal, who explained the drawing contest was part of the international day for tolerance.

City administration later told URA psychologists “conducted a preliminary analysis, during which they did not find elements in the drawings that propagate non-traditional values”.

On 3 December, URA reported the Ministry of Internal Affairs received a complaint that some of the children who drew the 17 posters had been threatened.

“In some of the publications that published news about this competition, there were very radical comments: some (commentators) called for the school to be burned, others wanted children, authors of drawings, and their parents to ‘burn in hell’ a representative of the resource center Alla Chikinda told URA.