A Russian magazine editor claims his publisher demanded he censor a book that mentions homosexuality in animals because it violates the country’s “LGBT propaganda” law.
Viktor Kovylin, editor of the scientific journal Batrachospermum, wrote on Telegram that his publisher told him the descriptions of same-sex behavior in a book on animal sexual behavior were against the law because they did not express “disgust or criticism” for the acts.
“Apparently, neutral scientific descriptions of homosexual behavior, without disgust or criticism, now fall under the category of propaganda for non-traditional relationships!” Kovylin wrote on Telegram, according to a translation.
So it wasn’t legally or expressedly banned by the govt. But in authoritarian fear-based and legally unpredictable states it’s not unusual for people to individually take rules even further than technically necessary, to affirm their adherence to the system and to be safe from even the smallest suspicion or most ridiculous accusation.
Might be worth noting that the publisher (Eksmo-AST) is one of the biggest book publishers in Russia.
The author clarified in an update that this was a sort of a joke from him. The publisher used an AI for legal analysis of the translated book, and AI recommended censoring it, but the publisher didn’t require any edits in this regard.
I’m also not sure how much of a ‘scientific magazine’ it is, because ‘Batrachospermum’ is a majorly shitposty name, but fitting for a Telegram channel, from where this info is sourced. They also have a site apparently.