ST. PETERSBURG, July 20 - RAPSI. Some 73 people have been fined for promoting homosexuality among the underaged, Interior Ministry for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region head Sergei Umnov said on Friday.

He added that another individual has been fined for promoting pedophilia.

The draft law sets fines for gay propaganda and was enacted in St. Petersburg on March 30. Any individual who violates the law can be fined for an administrative offense. Under the law, public campaigns promoting homosexuality, bisexuality and transgender issues among underage individuals are punishable by administrative fines of 5,000 rubles ($170) for individuals, 50,000 rubles ($1,566) for officials and from 250,000 to 500,000 rubles ($7,830 to $15,657) for legal entities.

The bill has faced strong criticism from the LGBT community and rights activists in Russia and abroad, but was also proposed to be made into a federal law.

LGBT activists have asked the U.S., EU and Canadian authorities to ban the bill's author Vitaly Milonov, a St. Petersburg legislature member, and the city's Governor Georgy Poltavchenko from entering their countries.

The U.S. State Department has already expressed concern over the law.

Rallies against the law have been held both in Russia and abroad.