Kazakh lawmakers on Wednesday introduced a bill to ban so-called LGBTQ propaganda in the country.
Reuters memo The bill, approved unanimously by members of the country’s lower house of parliament, would ban “LGBT propaganda” online and in the media, and would impose “fines for violators and up to 10 days in prison for repeat offenders.”
The bill is currently being sent to the Senate of Kazakhstan.
Reuters reported Senators will likely support this bill. President Kasym-Jomart Tokayev also expressed his intention to sign the agreement.
Kazakhstan is a Muslim-majority former Soviet republic located in Central Asia, bordering Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and China.
Although consensual same-sex sexual relations have been decriminalized in Kazakhstan, the State Department’s 2023 Human Rights Report memo Human rights activists have “reported threats of violence and serious abuse online and in person against LGBTQI+ individuals.” The document also shows that discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity remains common in the country. (Jessica Stern, a former U.S. special envoy to advance LGBTQ and intersex rights under the Biden-Harris administration and co-founder of the Alliance for Foreign Affairs and Justice, accused the current White House in August of “deliberately omitting” LGBTQ and intersex people from the State Department’s 2024 human rights report.)
Russia, Georgia, Hungary and others have also enacted propaganda laws.
Source: Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights, Gay News – www.washingtonblade.com
