Lawmakers in Kazakhstan pass Russian-style anti-LGBTQ law

Almaty, Kazakhstan — Kazakhstan’s parliament on Wednesday passed a bill to ban the promotion of what it calls “non-traditional sexual orientation” in public spaces and the media, a copycat of Russia’s anti-LGBTQ laws.    

Rights groups described the measure, which needs to be approved by the upper house, as discriminatory and said it would increase the vulnerability of LGBTQ people in the Central Asian Muslim-majority country, an ally of Russia.

The legislation would ban “information containing propaganda of pedophilia and/or non-traditional sexual orientation in public spaces, as well as in the media.”

Numerous rights groups urged MPs to reject the law, saying adopting it “would blatantly violate Kazakhstan’s international human rights commitments,” the International Partnership for Human Rights said in a statement.

Located between Russia and China, the vast former Soviet republic rich in natural resources, is trying to balance between its superpower neighbors and the West.  

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is currently on a state visit to Moscow, where he is expected to sign a strategic partnership agreement with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Earlier this year Tokayev slammed the rise of what he called LGBTQ values.

“For decades, so-called democratic moral values, including LGBT, were imposed on many countries,” he wrote on social media.

Echoing language used by Moscow, he added that various NGOs and foundations had used that as a facade for meddling in other countries’ internal affairs.

Russia adopted its own anti-LGBTQ law in 2013, initially banning what it called the “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships” among children. It expanded the measure to adults after it invaded Ukraine in 2022 and has ramped up a campaign targeting LGBTQ groups and people.

Several other countries, including EU members Hungary and Bulgaria have also passed anti-LGBTQ “propaganda” laws that critics say are inspired by Russia’s.

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