Moscow law enforcement authorities shut down a Tuesday night “Vulva 3.0” documentary screening in support of Yulia Tsvetkova, an LGBT activist who is being prosecuted for her drawings of female genitals.
Tsvetkova, 27, faces up to six years in jail on charges of distributing pornography for posting drawings of vaginas on her social media page dedicated to body positivity. She has been fined twice under a controversial law banning propaganda of “non-traditional” sexual relationships to minors for her drawings and for running LGBT-themed groups on social media.
Around 20 National Guard officers arrived at the “Vulva 3.0” screening on an anonymous tip-off of “homosexual propaganda,” the screening’s organizer Andrei Parshikov told the MBKh Media news website.
“A police chief came down to the Flacon design factory and said: ‘This is not okay’,” Parshikov said.
The unnamed police chief reportedly offered to take in a copy of the film to make sure it doesn’t violate the law on gay propaganda, “though we still can’t guarantee anything.”
Parshikov said organizers have postponed the screening of “Vulva 3.0,” a 2014 German documentary described as “non-sensationalistic research into the history of the female anatomy,” until a later date.
The National Guard later told the independent Dozhd news channel that its forces were not deployed to the screening’s venue.
Police in Russia’s Far East opened a third “gay propaganda” case against Tsvetkova this summer over drawings on social media protesting Russa’s constitutional amendments outlawing gay marriage.
Russia’s Memorial human rights group has declared Tsvetkova a political prisoner.
