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Russia

Trans Woman Commits Suicide After Employer Sacks Her because of Propaganda Ban

Dasha Stern via VK.com

EKATERINBURG, Russia -- LGBTQ Equality rights activists are alleging that a 22-year-old transgender woman is the first victim of Russia's so-called anti-gay propaganda law. Dasha Stern had committed suicide October 16 after her employer reportedly fired her based on the fear that the firm would be in violation of the national ban on "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relationships," by employing her.

The Association of Russian Lawyers for Human Rights reported that Stern had recently been disowned by her parents and kicked out of her home, presumably for being transgender. Stern had also recently been approved for a mortgage and auto loan but was unable to make those payments after she lost her job.  

Prominent Russian Human Rights attorney Masha Bast along with other Russian LGBT activists had held a vigil and rally near the Kremlin in Moscow's Red Square this past Saturday in honour of Stern.

Bast, an openly Bisexual trans woman, told RusAdvocate, the official blog for The Association of Russian Lawyers for Human Rights;

"Vladimir Putin has created the system where there is no place for transgender, there is no place for dissenters," Bast said. "Dasha Stern is the victim of the indifference of Russian society."