When the lower chamber of Russia’s parliament passed a new law banning gender-affirming surgeries for transgender people, it confirmed Milana Romanova’s worst fear: the relative freedom transgender people had enjoyed in Russia since 1997, throughout her life, was over. The new law, passed Friday and now going to the Senate and President Putin for final approval, dangerously signaled growing medical pressure on gay and transgender people: Putin had personally directed the Health Ministry to create a special “psychiatric institute” to study LGBTQ people. Romanova told The Daily Beast that the new legislation “would only encourage more violence and more transgender people will try to commit suicide.” LGBT, terrified for their lives in Russia and desperate for asylum.