UNDATED, Aug 13: Top Democrats in the California Senate on Monday asked the state’s multibillion-dollar public employee pension funds to refrain from making future investments in Russia, adding their voices to protests against restrictions on gay rights there.
A proposed resolution by Senator Mark Leno, President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and others urges the California Public Employee Retirement System, or CalPERS, and the California State Teachers Retirement System, to halt investments in Russia until the issue is resolved.
CalPERS, the largest employee pension system in the nation, has 266 billion dollar invested around the globe, of which 1.4 billion dollar is invested in Russia.
The nonbinding resolution, which must be passed by the full Senate, protests a ban on same-sex couples from adopting Russian children, and a law prohibiting gay “propaganda.”
The measures are part of the conservative course taken by President Vladimir Putin on social issues since his return to the Kremlin in May 2012.
Critics say the propaganda law effectively disallows all gay rights rallies and could be used to prosecute anyone voicing support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals.
“The resolution condemns Russia’s official attack on the LGBT community,” Leno said in an interview. “It also calls upon the president and Congress and the State Department to encourage the decriminalization of homosexuality in all countries.”
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