Russian poetry prize bans entries from transgender people
A Russian poetry competition has banned transgender people from submitting entries this year, in what it says is an effort to protect traditional values.
LONDON — A Russian poetry competition has banned transgender people from submitting entries this year, in what it says is an effort to protect traditional values.
The Andrei Dementyev All-Russian Poetry Prize, organized by the government of western Russia’s Tver region, accepts applications until late April from poets “regardless of citizenship, nationality, profession and place of residence.”
But the competition explicitly bars “citizens who have changed their gender,” according to rules posted on the website of a local poetry organization.
The competition organizers said the move was an effort to “preserve the ideas of marriage, family, motherhood, fatherhood and childhood that are traditional for Russian society”.
Under President Vladimir Putin, Russia has engaged in a widespread crackdown on LGBTQ rights, portraying them as a Western invention that threatens traditional Russian values.
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