Gay dads fled Russia because they feared adopted children would be taken away
Evgeny Erofeev (left) and Andrey Vaganov fear criminal prosecution (Menduza)
Two gay dads who fled Russia because they feared that their children would be taken away from them are now seeking asylum in the United States.
Andrei Vaganov and Evgeny Erofeyev were forced to flee Russia after the government began investigating their family when it discovered that their two sons did not have a mother.
An advocacy group called Coming Out has said that the family is seeking asylum in the US as they are afraid of returning to Russia, according to QNews.
“The entire family feels safe,” the group said in a statement.
“The children are studying in America and are successfully adapting to new living conditions with the start of the school year.”
The gay couple have been raising their sons for almost a decade.
The couple have been raising their sons, who are now 12 and 14, for almost a decade, and they got married in Denmark in 2016.
The family was living a happy existence until their youngest son Yuri was hospitalised with a stomach ache. It was then that doctors discovered the boys had no mother.
The children are studying in America and are successfully adapting to new living conditions with the start of the school year.
When Yuri was discharged from hospital, Vaganov and Erofeyev were told to report to police for questioning. What started as a “pre-investigation check” fast became more serious. Authorities insisted that Yuri undergo a physical exam to rule out abuse.
When their other son was called in for an interview, a family law attorney recommended that they consider fleeing the country as child protective services were likely to place the children in foster care.
Social welfare agency that allowed the men to adopt have been accused of ‘criminal negligence’.
The government is also investigating the Moscow social welfare agency that let Vaganov adopt the children. Authorities have accused social workers who allowed the boys to be adopted by two men of “criminal negligence.”
The chilling investigation comes six years after Russia introduced what has become known as the “gay propaganda” law, which bans the promotion of “non-traditional sexual relations to minors”.
Human rights organisations have been highly critical of the discriminatory law and have said that it is exacerbating hostility towards minority groups.
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Russia has violated the rights of its LGBT+ citizens on three occasions since the law was introduced.
