A convention celebrating My Little Pony in Russia was deemed “LGBT propaganda” by authorities and shut down by federal agents.
The pint-sized ponies are just too gay for diminutive Russian president Vladimir Putin.
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The raid was conducted to break up an event mounted by fans of the popular pony series and toys. The event was called “Mi Amore Fest,” according to Russian-language news site The Insider, based in Latvia.
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Organizers went so far as to change 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.
It didn’t fool authorities.
Attendees shared a world-weary reaction to the latest Kafkaesque scene in Putin’s anti-LGBTQ+ drama.
“Apparently, you won’t be able to get to the festival anymore. While we were drinking coffee, a squad arrived and dispersed everyone. They wrote a statement for LGBT propaganda. Well, let’s go home.”
Another Russian and English-language news site, Meduza, reported that Russian government-aligned movie database Kinopoisk added an 18+ symbol next to the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic television series.
Telegram channel Sota speculated that the decision was based on the character Rainbow Dash’s rainbow mane.
In addition to the rainbow-hued Dash, MLP has featured multiple characters with nonconforming character traits since its introduction as a toy by Hasbro in 1982.
The first animated series debuted in 1986.
A recent Russian Supreme Court ruling at the urging of Putin’s Ministry of Justice declared the so-called “international LGBT rights movement” a terrorist organization, just one of several laws aimed at erasing LGBTQ+ identity from Russia and passed at Putin’s direction.
The convention raid was just the latest crackdown in that effort.
Last week, two women were taken into custody after video they posted on social media revealed them kissing in a pizzeria not far from one of Putin’s palaces in the city of Krasnodar in southwest Russia. Another woman was recently arrested and charged after she and her companion were accosted at a restaurant by an angry mob complaining about her rainbow-styled earrings and her companion’s Ukraine flag lapel pin.
A Russian federal watchdog group is investigating language app Duolingo for “distribution of information that promotes LGBT,” and a Russian rapper spent 15 days in jail for the LGBTQ+ crime of wearing only a sock at a party.
In Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city, a video distributed by local news outlet Ura.ru revealed riot police storming a dance club and ordering patrons out, while in December, a crackdown in Moscow saw police raid a nightclub, a male sauna, and an LGBTQ+-inclusive bar in the Russian capital, with officers checking and photographing patrons’ IDs.
