Russian parliament expected to back sex reassignment surgery

Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, is expected to give its initial backing in a vote later on Wednesday to legislation that would ban sex reassignment surgery.
Under President Vladimir Putin, Russian lawmakers have increasingly denounced and cracked down on what they call “non-traditional” lifestyles they say are being promoted by the West.
The proposed legislation would ban state agencies from changing a person’s gender in their personal documents.
According to a document posted in the Duma’s database, in addition to outlawing gender reassignment surgery it would also ban “any medical interventions aimed at shaping a person’s primary and secondary sex characteristics.”
The draft legislation said, the only exception would be surgery “aimed at treating congenital anomalies in children.”
Parliament last year passed a new law which critics say effectively bans representation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in public and in the media.