TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Russia’s Justice Ministry said Friday it has filed a lawsuit with the country’s Supreme Court seeking to ban the LGBTQ+ “international public movement” as extremist, the latest devastating blow to the already beleaguered LGBTQ+ community in the increasingly conservative world is country.

The ministry said in an online statement announcing the lawsuit that authorities had identified “signs and manifestations of an extremist nature” in “the activities of the LGBT movement active in Russia,” including “incitement to social and religious discord.” Russia’s Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing to consider the lawsuit on November 30, the ministry said.

It’s not yet clear what exactly the label would mean for LGBTQ+ people in Russia if the Supreme Court sides with the Justice Department, and the department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the move itself represents the latest and perhaps by far the most drastic step in the decades-long crackdown on gay rights in Russia launched under President Vladimir Putin, who has made “traditional family values” the cornerstone of his rule.

The crackdown, which began a decade ago, has slowly but surely weakened LGBTQ+ rights. In 2013, the Kremlin passed the first law restricting LGBTQ+ rights, known as the “Gay Propaganda” law, which bans any uncritical public depiction of “non-traditional sexual relationships” between minors. In 2020, Putin pushed through a constitutional reform to extend his rule for two more terms, which also banned same-sex marriage.

In 2022, after sending troops into Ukraine, the Kremlin sharpened its rhetoric about protecting “traditional values” from what it called the “degrading” influence of the West, which human rights activists saw as an attempt to end the war in the to legitimize Ukraine. That same year, authorities passed a law that also banned the propaganda of “non-traditional sexual relationships” between adults, effectively banning any public support of LGBTQ+ people.

Another law passed this year banned gender reassignment procedures and gender-affirming care for transgender people. The law banned any “medical procedure intended to change a person’s sex,” as well as changing gender in official documents and public records. In addition, the Russian Family Code was amended to list a change in gender as a reason for annulment of a marriage and to add those “who had changed their gender” to a list of people who cannot become foster or adoptive parents.

“Do we really want to have ‘parent No. 1, No. 2, No. 3’ here, in our country, in Russia, instead of ‘mom’ and ‘dad’?” Putin said in September 2022 at a ceremony marking the annexation of four Ukrainian regions through Moscow. “Do we really want perversions that lead to degradation and extinction to be imposed on our schools from elementary school onwards?”

Authorities have rejected allegations of discrimination against LGBTQ+ people. Earlier this week, Russian media quoted Andrei Loginov, a deputy justice minister, as saying that “the rights of LGBT people in Russia are protected by law.” Speaking in Geneva while presenting a report on human rights in Russia to the UN Human Rights Council, Loginov argued that “restricting the public demonstration of non-traditional sexual relationships or preferences does not constitute a form of censure for them.”

Putin called LGBTQ+ people “also part of society” at a cultural event in St. Petersburg on Friday and said they were entitled to win various arts and culture awards. He did not comment on the Justice Department’s lawsuit.