Russian Official Fears Men Licking Ice Cream Has Gay Undertone

An official in Siberia has said that a promotional image of two men in summer clothing enjoying ice cream in sub-zero temperatures should not be displayed because it was connected to "non-traditional relationships."

In November 2022, Russia's parliament passed a law banning "LGBT propaganda," which criminalizes any act regarded as an attempt to promote what Russia calls "non-traditional sexual relations" in film, online, advertising or in public.

Since then, the crackdown has got tougher, with Russia's Supreme Court last month classifying the LGBTQ+ movement as extremist, even though no such organization exists as an entity.

The law in effect bans anything deemed to promote a "non-heterosexual lifestyle." While it does not come into effect in Russia until January 10, 2024, there have already been reports of raids on LGBTQ+ venues in the country.

Meanwhile, news outlet SibFM reported that Alexander Tarasov, the chairman of the standing committee on culture, had taken issue with a photograph intended to show the hardiness of Siberians in winter. The picture taken in 2020 in the center of Siberia's biggest city, Novosibirsk, shows two men in beachwear from a tourism club enjoying an ice-cream in front of a digital sign that lists the temperature as minus 33 degrees Celsius (minus 27 degrees Fahrenheit). Newsweek contacted Tarasov by email on Saturday.

The aim of the image was "to amuse Novosibirsk residents and show that they were not cold." But Novosibirsk City Council deputy Svetlana Kaverzina told Sib.fm that the image was presented as part of a presentation of a municipal program promoting culture and tourism.

"The chairman of the commission considered that it was connected with non-traditional relationships. He asked me not to display this photo anywhere next time," Kaverzina told the outlet.

She posted the images on her Telegram account, which prompted a lively thread. "Stop seeing homosexuality everywhere," wrote one, "either treat your latent orientation, or treat your internal homophobia."

Another questioned why such a conclusion could be drawn about "normal people who simply show strength and endurance in such cold weather."

In July, Russian lawmaker Maria Butina, a former spy who was convicted and jailed in the United States on charges of conspiring to act as an unregistered foreign agent, called for Barbie dolls to be banned following LGBTQ+ representation in the blockbuster Barbie movie.

Butina said that the movie shows "gays, trans people, and women who have taken over the world, i.e. Barbies." She added: "There's nothing about some kind of union, that there can be a man and a woman, about love."