Banned Russian LGBT youth group returns with more members than ever

• Joe Williams
• 29^th September 2015, 2:25 PM

A member of the group shares his support online (Facebook)

The LGBT support group has gained even more members since its recent ban.
Last week Russian media watchdog, Roskomnadzor, banned a number of LGBT groups registered on the country’s most popular social network VKontakte.

The media watchdog forced VK – the Russian version of Facebook – to officially ban the groups, which included Children 404.
The group is ran by journalist Yelena Klimova and provides counselling to LGBT young people.

It was found the group had been guilty of “gay propaganda” – the controversial anti-gay law that bans the promotion “non-traditional relationships” to minors.
However, within just a day of the ban a new Children 404 page started on the social media site – with more active members than ever before.
At the time of publishing, there are over 75,000 young LGBT people and their allies supporting and encouraging others to support LGBT equality.
Ms Klimova – who was previously fined 50,000 rubles ($755, €680) for setting up the group – was the first to post.
“Hello again, with love, the project team,” she wrote.
The post was accompanied by iconic anthem Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive’.
Russian President Vladimir Putin recently has attacked homophobic US laws while saying Russia ensures equal rights to all LGBT people.

The Russian leader made the unexpected comments during an interview on Sunday (September 27) night.
He claimed that homophobia in Russia has been “deliberately exaggerated”, before attacking the United States and the anti-gay laws that he says still exist there.