Russian media reports say President Vladimir Putin on July 24 signed a law banning gender reassignment in all cases except when allowed for health reasons.

The relevant document is published on the official legal information portal.

On July 19, the legislation was adopted by the Federation Council (Russia’s upper chamber of parliament), a week after the lower house adopted it at a plenary session in the third reading.

Sputnik says that according to the document, gender change will be allowed only for medical reasons. Among other things, it proposes to annul a marriage if one of the spouses changes gender and ban a person from adopting children after gender reassignment.

The norms will not apply to those who have changed their gender before the day the legislation goes into effect.

The Moscow Times reports that the law also bans individuals who have undergone gender reassignment from adopting children and annuls marriages in which one of the partners is transgender.

It enters into force immediately upon its publishing on the government website.