Kazakhstan bans so-called LGBTQ+ propaganda

Read more at the Advocate.

The Central Asian country of Kazakhstan has joined its neighbor Russia in banning so-called LGBTQ+ propaganda.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a bill to that effect into law Tuesday, news service Anadolu Agency reports. It bans “pedophilia propaganda” as well, according to the service. Punishment for violations include a fine of 144,500 Kazakh tenge ($280) and jailing for up to 10 days.

Kazakh citizens had submitted a petition about a year and a half ago urging the government to ban anything considered pro-LGBTQ+ propaganda. The Senate had passed the bill December 18 and the lower chamber of Parliament, the Majilis, approved it in November.

When the Senate was considering the legislation, Sen. Ruslan Rustemov described it as “banning the use of media, literature, entertainment, and other events that promote nontraditional sexual relations and pedophilia,” according to Kazakh news outlet Vlast.kz, as translated by The Diplomat, a newsmagazine covering the Asia-Pacific region.

“An analysis of international experience shows that many countries around the world have adopted legislation that ensures the protection of national values and traditions, including those that provide for the protection of the institution of the traditional family,” Rustemov said.

Vice Minister of Justice Botagoz Zhakselekova “tried to split hairs,” The Diplomat notes, saying LGBTQ+ identity will not be illegal, but “public promotion of LGBT rights” will be. “How this doesn’t violate Kazakh citizens’ basic constitutional rights to the freedom of expression and association isn’t clear,” The Diplomat’s reporter commented.

An international coalition of human rights organizations had condemned the legislation while it was pending. Access Now; Civil Rights Defenders; Eurasian Coalition on Health, Rights, Gender and Sexual Diversity; Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights; Human Rights Watch; International Partnership for Human Rights; and Norwegian Helsinki Committee issued a statement against the measure in November, saying it “would violate fundamental human rights and increase the vulnerability of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex, and other queer people (LGBTIQ+) in Kazakhstan.”

“Adopting a ‘LGBT propaganda ban’ would blatantly violate Kazakhstan’s international human rights commitments, including children’s rights to education, health, and information,” the statement continued. “Discriminatory and rights-violating provisions like those being proposed have no place in any democratic society, which Kazakhstan aspires to be.”

Kazahkstan’s government additionally has been interfering with journalists in the nation, searching their offices and detaining reporters, and the LGBTQ+ propaganda law will only make this worse, said a December press release from Human Rights Watch and eight other groups. It is “a direct threat not only to people identifying as LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex), but also to journalists, academics, artists, human rights defenders, and civil society actors who risk administrative sanctions for reporting on or advocating for the rights of these groups, or for expressing positive views of LGBTI rights publicly or online,” the release pointed out. What’s more, it goes against Kazahkstan’s constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression, and directives from international bodies such as the United Nations, the organizations added.

December 31, 2025 0

Kazakh Senate indefinitely postpones consideration of massively anti-LGBTQ+ bill

Read more on LGBTQ Nation.

A month after the lower chamber of Kazakhstan’s parliament voted for a ban on “LGBTQ+ propaganda,” the former Soviet nation’s Senate announced that the legislation would be delayed for an indefinite period of time.

The bill, modeled on Russia’s ban on LGBTQ+ speech, included fines and jail time for people found to have spread pro-LGBTQ+ messages in the media or on social media.

“Children and teenagers are exposed to information online every day that can negatively impact their ideas about family, morality, and the future,” Kazakh Education Minister Gani Beisembayev told lawmakers before the vote.

Deputy Irina Smirnova cited library books and cartoons featuring same-sex relationships as examples of the “propaganda” addressed by the bill.

“I saw books in the library that promote LGBT, where a prince falls in love with a prince, two boys,” she told lawmakers. “There are cartoons that allow this to be shown, there are magazines and comics where all this is promoted.”

But the Kazakh Senate announced last week that the bill was tabled. “The consideration of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan ‘On Amendments and Additions to Certain Legislative Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Issues of Archival Affairs and Limiting the Dissemination of Illegal Content’ has been postponed to later dates,” the Senate press service said in a statement, according to the Kazakh Telegraph Agency (KazTAG).

“It is important to note that the law introduces amendments and additions to the Labor Code of Kazakhstan, as well as to 12 other laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan. This is a significant amount of work and requires additional time. Moreover, given that the law also regulates issues related to the protection of children’s rights, this is always a matter requiring special consideration and increased attention.”

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev lobbied hard for the bill, saying that it was necessary to uphold “traditional values.” Parties loyal to Tokayev dominate the lower chamber and voted unanimously in favor of the ban.

While the Muslim-majority nation is officially secular, it remains deeply conservative when it comes to social issues. Male homosexuality was decriminalized in the 1990s, but the country does not ban discrimination against LGBTQ+ people. In 2022, the Ministry of Defense said that no one is banned from military service due to sexual orientation.

December 10, 2025 0

Russian-style anti-LGBTQ law advances in Kazakhstan to ban promotion of “non-traditional sexual orientation”

Read more at CBS News.

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.

November 13, 2025 0