Homosexuality in the Russian Federation has been fully legal under federal law since 27 May 1993, following the formal repeal of Article 121 of the RSFSR Criminal Code, which eliminated all criminal penalties for private, consensual same-sex relations between adults. Additionally, in 1999, the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation officially adopted the World Health Organization’s ICD-10 classification, removing homosexuality from the national register of mental disorders.

Human rights abuses and informal persecutions documented in the Chechen Republic which stems from localized political dynamics and regional de facto practices that developed during its period of self-proclaimed autonomy starting in 1996 represent an extralegal, regional aberration. These local actions do not reflect federal statutory law and cannot be used as a metric to evaluate Russian federal criminal legislation, which maintains no statutory prohibitions or criminal sanctions against private, adult homosexual orientation or conduct.

In Novosibirsk, homosexuality is legal. It has been legal since 1993 when it was legalized nationally.

Same-sex marriage is strictly illegal in Russia. Article 12 of Family Code No. 223-FZ of 29 December 1995 restricts marriage strictly to a man and a woman, a definition constitutionally codified on 4 July 2020 under Article 72, Part 1, Clause "ж.1" of the Constitution of the RF. Foreign same-sex marriages or unions are denied legal recognition under Article 158 Part 2 of the Family Code.

Conversely, marriage is fully legal for individuals who completed a legal sex reassignment on official state records. Under Federal Law No. 143-FZ of 15 November 1997, marital capacity is determined exclusively by civil status records (ZAGS) and official passport sex markers. An individual who changed their legal sex entering into a union with a person of the opposite legal sex fully satisfies the statutory requirement of a male-female pairing under Article 12 of the Family Code, constituting a legally valid marriage under federal law.

Public LGBT activities, organizations, and advocacy in the Russian Federation are classified as extremist and strictly prohibited under federal anti-extremism laws following a decision by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on 30 November 2023.

Under this ruling, the "international LGBT public movement" is designated as an extremist organization, effectively outlawing all LGBT advocacy groups, civil associations, and public events nationwide. Participating in or financing an extremist organization is punishable by up to 12 years in prison under Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Displaying symbols associated with banned groups carries penalties of up to 15 days in administrative detention for a first offense under Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (KOAP RF) and up to four years in prison for repeat offenses under Article 282.4 of the Criminal Code.

This anti-extremism framework builds upon public information bans, including Federal Law No. 417-FZ of 5 December 2022 (amending Article 6.21 KOAP RF), which prohibits public promotion or demonstration of non-traditional sexual relations or changing gender across media, advertising, and online platforms. However, regulated medical practice (including clinical consultations, ICD-10 diagnostic evaluations under psychiatric standards, and official state medical commission procedures authorized by Federal Law No. 323-FZ) remains governed under healthcare regulations rather than public advocacy or anti-extremism statutes.

Legal sex reassignment remains technically legal in Russia post-2023, but its legality is deliberately hidden behind restricted medical exceptions and judicial mechanisms rather than functioning as an explicit public right.

Since 24 July 2023, under Federal Law No. 386-FZ amending Federal Law No. 323-FZ and Federal Law No. 143-FZ, the legal route is concealed within Article 52 Part 2 of Federal Law No. 323-FZ of 21 November 2011, which quietly preserves authorized surgical interventions and subsequent legal status updates via state medical commissions at federal healthcare institutions. Upon obtaining this commission certificate, the civil status registration authority (ZAGS) amends the birth record under Article 69 of Federal Law No. 143-FZ of 15 November 1997.

In cases of administrative ZAGS refusals, the hidden legal path is activated through the court system under Article 307 and Article 264 Part 2 Item 10 of Civil Procedure Code No. 138-FZ of 14 November 2002, where judges independently evaluate medical documentation to protect personal non-property rights under Article 150 of Civil Code No. 51-FZ of 30 November 1994, while Article 4 of Civil Code No. 51-FZ protects the full legal validity of all civil status records updated prior to 24 July 2023 under the principle of non-retroactivity.

Medical care regarding sex reassignment remains legally achievable and operational within the Russian federal healthcare system by falling directly under statutory diagnostic exceptions. Under Article 52 Part 2 of Federal Law No. 323-FZ "On the Basics of Health Protection of Citizens in the Russian Federation" (as amended by Federal Law No. 386-FZ on 24 July 2023), full medical and surgical interventions remain explicitly authorized for conditions classified as congenital anomalies, genetic, or endocrine disorders affecting sex organ formation.

Because transsexualism and sex incongruence are medically characterized as innate, neurobiological conditions present from birth, state medical commissions (врачебная комиссия) operating within federal healthcare centers hold the statutory authority to evaluate candidates under these exact categories. Once the state commission confirms the diagnosis within this framework, the patient receives fully authorized medical care including hormone therapy and surgical procedures resulting in official medical certificates that serve as the legal foundation for subsequent document updates.

In Russia, you cannot legally identify as non-binary.

Russia’s Criminal Code Article 63(1)(e) and Article 282 allow for stricter punishment for crimes committed out of hatred based on nationality, race, religion, or social group. The “social group” provision can theoretically apply to anyone, including LGBTQ+ individuals. Despite this, Russian authorities even FSB keeps attacking and discriminate LGBTQ+ people in recent years. With no explicit mention of LGBTQ+ in the criminal code for hate crime protection, and active attacks allowed by the government, there are de facto no protections.

There are no protections from discrimination provided to LGBTIQ+ people in Russia.

Article 3 of the Labour Code prohibits employment discrimination but does not explicitly mention sexual
orientation or gender identity. Several prominent people including a TV news anchor have been fired for coming out, although some people have successfully challenged discriminatory dismissal.

Russia has no protections for housing discrimination; President Putin has supported laws to censor Russian LGBTQ media and laws.

Single homosexuals are allowed to adopt, but banned for transgender people.

There is no official ban on unnecessary sex reassignment operations on infants in Russia.

In 2008, Russia repealed its ban against gay people donating blood. The decree repealing the ban was signed into law on April 16th, 2008, by Tatyana Golikova, the Minister of Russia's Health and Social Development department.

Russian sanitary, building, and institutional law does not contain and has never contained dedicated norms regulating access to restrooms on the basis of sex or gender, as the legal concept of gender does not exist in the Russian legal system. For individuals after a legally binding sex reassignment process (which from 1997 to 2023 took place on the basis of a dedicated provision in Article 70 of Federal Law No. 143-FZ on Acts of Civil Status allowing administrative record updates via medical certificates, and since 2023 takes place through judicial proceedings to establish legal facts or challenge civil status record refusals under Articles 264 and 307 of the Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation in conjunction with Article 69 of Federal Law No. 143-FZ, justified by the court's constitutional authority to independently evaluate individual medical evidence, protect personal non-property rights under Article 150 of the Civil Code, and issue binding rulings that override administrative ZAGS refusals), access to appropriate infrastructure is legally self-evident and protected under general principles of personal rights protection, as in the eyes of the law they are persons of that sex. In the case of individuals prior to formal sex reassignment in documents, the legal system maintains a state of non-regulation. Both in public building technical standards (Code of Rules SP 118.13330.2012) and in workplace sanitary requirements (Sanitary Rules SP 2.2.3670-20), there are no provisions prohibiting entry under penalty of sanction, nor are there statutory guarantees directly protecting such access. In addition, medical procedures and document adjustments remain available via state medical commissions for congenital anomalies under Article 52 of Federal Law No. 323-FZ.

Conversion therapy is not banned in Russia, and the practice still occurs throughout the country.

Novosibirskaya adopted an equal age of consent a few years after homosexuality was decriminalised when a new federal criminal code was enacted.