For starters let’s, look at the whole paragraph.
In Russia it is now illegal to even speak about homosexuality around minors, much less openly display gay pride. Technically the ban is against “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” around minors, but the implication for openly gay individuals is clear. Public displays of affection by gays, including holding hands or displaying symbols like a rainbow flag, are now banned.
The author is only speculating that it means people can’t hold hands. Obviously if they are holding hands and making googly eyes at each other, someone might have cause to complain, but if two people of the same sex are walking down the street hand in hand to keep from getting separated in a busy crowd, no one will be upset by that.
Yes it does because it shuts down the mechanism by which LGBT have achieved rights in the rest of the world. They’ve done though coming out, through protests, through organizing, through banding together, through pride parades and through lobbying and legislative action. All of that is now severely hindered in Russia.
I expect that that’s actually the whole point.
They don’t want homosexuals forming a “community”, or to be going around demanding privileges beyond the ordinary rights of citizens that they already have. They don’t
want to redefine marriage, or normalize the homosexual lifestyle as one option among many for young people to choose from.