On Monday, Russian lawmaker Vasily Piskaryov said that a committee of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, had prepared a bill barring foreigners from adopting children if their country permits gender-affirming treatment.
He added that most of the countries where such care is legal are NATO allies, and that there is no guarantee that adopted children would not end up in a same-sex family if one of the adoptive parents undergoes gender reassignment surgery. In July, the State Duma adopted a legislation banning gender reassignment in Russia.
"We support the proposal of the State Duma committee to ban adoption for foreign citizens if their countries permit 'gender reassignment.' The lawmakers are guided by a child's interests here. It is absolutely unacceptable for us that foreign citizens that adopt our children can induce them to undergo the so-called gender reassignment after moving to their own country," Lukyanov said.
There are about 80 countries in the world where gender reassignment or gender-affirming surgery is permitted, but "especially monstrous is that many countries also allow gender reassignment for children," the church official added.
In Norway, minors as young as seven years old can get gender-affirming care, while in the United Kingdom and in Denmark the age limit stands at nine and 12, respectively, Lukyanov said. In Australia, children are allowed to "choose their gender themselves" starting from the age of three, and in the United States, children as old as eight can be treated with hormones and can undergo gender-affirming surgery at 15, he added.
"We believe it is a crime and violence against children, as they are very suggestible and cannot make a rational decision for themselves. And their significant others, teachers as well as peers, who are tolerant to such perversions, can have a destructive effect on our children. After Russian children are adopted and moved outside Russia, they often become a tool in the inhuman system of gender ideology, and Russia already has no means to save them from proponents of gender reassignment," Lukyanov said.
The Russian Orthodox Church cannot accept gender reassignment under any circumstances, the priest added. Its position on the matter is set out in the Fundamentals of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church and "is not subject to revision," he added.