Belarusian Parliament passed A bill was introduced on Thursday that would criminalize the propaganda of LGBTQA+ relationships, gender reassignment, child-free lifestyles and pedophilia, punishable by fines, community service or arrest. Belarus drafted the bill in February 2024. The bill will now go to President Lukashenko, who is expected to sign it.
Belarus decriminalized the LGBTQA+ movement in 1994, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but same-sex marriage was not recognized in the country. In 2024 the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus classified the LGBTQA+ movement as a “non-traditional sexual relationship or behavior,” the same classification given to necrophilia, pedophilia, and voyeurism. In September of the same year, 15 LGBTQA+ people were arrested by Belarusian authorities, some of whom suffered physical and psychological abuse. Others had to leave the country.
Belarus emulates Russia’s anti-LGBTQ+ policies: Russia passed a law banning LGBTQ+ propaganda in 2022. The European Court of Human Rights found that the 2013 version of the same law was discriminatory. In 2023, Russia banned gender-affirming surgeries and labeled the LGBTQ+ movement “extremist.” In 2024, Russia reclassified the LGBTQ+ movement as a terrorist organization. The crackdown on the LGBTQA+ community in Russia has continued in the form of bar raids, fines for Telegram posts, fines against bookstores for LGBTQA+ books, fines against Apple, criminal cases, and more. In 2024, Russia forbidden Propaganda for a child-free lifestyle and, a year later, banned abortion propaganda.
International organizations and human rights groups have also raised concerns about LGBTQA+ rights in Kazakhstan, Turkey, Hungary, Georgia and Bulgaria.
