The organizers of a Russian poetry competition banned this year the participation of transgender peoplein an effort to protect what they said were traditional values.

The All-Russian Andrei Demediev Poetry Prize, organized by the government of the Tver region of Russia, is accepting applications until the end of April from poets “regardless of citizenship, nationality, profession and place of residence.”

But the tender expressly excludes “citizens who have changed their gender,” according to the rules posted on the website of a local poetry organization.

The organizers of the contest stated that this initiative constitutes an effort “to protect traditional for Russian society ideas of marriage, family, motherhood, fatherhood and childhood».

Russia, under the leadership of President Vladimir Putin, has widely suppressed the rights of the LGBTI community, which it portrays as a Western invention that threatens Russian traditional values

Russia labels “the international LGBTI social movement,” as it calls it, as extremist and those who support it as terrorists, paving the way for serious criminal prosecutions against LGBTI people and their supporters.

Transgender people in particular have seen their rights stripped away. Russia last year banned gender reassignment surgery and hormone therapy and banned transgender people from adopting or fostering children.

Nef Cellarius, program coordinator for the Russian LGBTI rights group Vykhod (“Coming out” in English), told Reuters that the ban on the poetry prize is an example of a growing tendency among local officials to show their loyalty to the Kremlin on various social issues.

“As soon as it becomes known that the ‘Tsar’ does not like something, the entire state apparatus begins to publicly condemn this ‘something’” said Cellarius, who is based in Germany.

The organizers of the competition in Tver did not give any explanation as to why they exclude transgender people. The competition, named after a local Soviet-Russian poet, awards two main prizes annually for works of “undeniable artistic value” and “universal moral values”.

Previous pageants did not ban transgender participants, Russian independent news agency Mediazona reported.

Organizers of the award did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.