A St. Petersburg court has fined the promotions team behind Lady Gaga‘s local show last year for spreading “propaganda of alcohol consumption and homosexuality,” in violation of a law that prohibits exposing children to “harmful information,” after a local resident filed a complaint.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, St. Petersburg’s court #122 responded to Nadezhda Petrova’s complaint, who claimed her 13-year-old daughter was exposed to “an imitation of sexual intercourse between women and advocacy of alcohol consumption,” during the show.
Judge Olga Rositskaya ruled that promoter Planeta Plus had violated a Russian administrative clause that enforces “protection of children from information that could harm their health and/or development,” issuing a fine for 20,000 rubles (approx. $650).
Though a small fine, Rositskaya’s ruling allows the complainant to sue the promoter in criminal court, with the potential to demand millions of rubles in compensation for “psychic trauma” suffered by Petrova’s daughter at the Gaga show last December, which she attended with her mother.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Labor Union of Russian Citizens, a smalltime conservative organisation is believed to have spearheaded the complaint, with Russian online newspaper Gazeta.ru quoting one of their spokespeople as saying Petrova is considering further legal action.
Meanwhile, Planeta Plus is reportedly planning to appeal the court’s decision, saying “We don’t agree with this verdict because no one listened to us. Because of these laws against gay propaganda adopted here, because of these cheap publicity tricks, all viewers suffer.”
Many artists have so far come out against Russia’s “anti-gay propaganda” laws, including Cher and Peter Gabriel. St. Petersburg enacted similar legislation before it became federal law, with the legislation used in an attempt to sue pop-star Madonna.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
