Rainbow unicorn bank card deemed “gay propaganda” by Russian lawmakers

Bank cards for kids in Russia will no longer sport “rainbow unicorns” after lawmakers called out a bank for violating the country’s draconian law against “gay propaganda.”

Members of the lower-chamber State Duma’s Family, Women, and Children Committee asked Russia’s largest lender, Sberbank, to remove a rainbow-colored unicorn from its bank cards for kids, saying that “rainbow symbols” represent the “international LGBT movement.”

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Committee members addressed their letter to the head of the bank, citing messages about the card design from “outraged” parents.

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“We ask you, dear German Oskarovich, to take into account the opinion of parents and deputies of our committee on preventing violations of Russian legislation and to halt the issuance of the Children’s SberCard with the ‘rainbow unicorn’ — a symbol of the LGBT movement,” the letter said, according to the state-run TASS news agency.

The bank issues cards for kids aged 6 to 13 with seven different designs, including a dancing rainbow-maned unicorn. The bank could face legal penalties if it doesn’t comply with the lawmakers’ letter.

With the encouragement of President Vladimir Putin, Russia’s Supreme Court designated the “international LGBT movement” an “extremist” organization in November 2023 and banned it nationwide. The Kafkaesque ruling outlawed a coordinated “international LGBT movement” that doesn’t exist, but gave authorities broad discretion to erase LGBTQ+ identity in the country.

In June, the popular language learning app Duolingo removed LGBTQ+ inclusive content from the Russian version of its app to conform with the “gay propaganda” ban. The app came under the scrutiny of authorities after complaints from an anti-LGBTQ+ activist group in Siberia found “gay content” on the app. The group called LGBTQ+ people “sodomites” and said “outraged” parents described the gay content as “traumatizing.”

In February, police shut down a My Little Pony convention for violating the law, despite organizers changing the rainbow-colored mane of the central character, Rainbow Dash, to a Russia-themed tricolor pattern of red, blue, and white on fliers advertising the event.

The same month, a young woman in the city of Nizhny Novgorod, east of Moscow, was arrested and charged for wearing rainbow-colored earrings. A court found her guilty of wearing “prohibited symbols” and she spent five days in jail.

Putin’s anti-LGBTQ+ crusade first gained momentum in 2013 with his national ban on sharing “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” with minors. The prohibition effectively criminalized Pride parades and any public displays of affection by gay people in Russia.

In 2022, the Duma expanded the propaganda ban to include all ages, criminalizing “any action or the spreading of any information that is considered an attempt to promote homosexuality in public, online, or in films, books or advertising.”

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