The legislation prohibits the dissemination of materials about ‘non-traditional sexual-orientation’ designed to ’shape positive public opinion.’
Kazakhstan’s parliament on Nov. 12 passed a law through its lower house banning “LGBT propaganda” online or in the media, mandating fines for violators and sentences of up to 10 days in prison for repeat offenders.
The legislation was voted through the Majilis, the former Soviet republic’s junior chamber, with unanimous support.
Lawmaker Yelnur Beisenbayev defined “propaganda” in late October in relation to the legislation as “dissemination of information about non-traditional sexual orientation and commitment to it whether publicly or through the use of mass media … including intentionally distorted information for an indefinite number of people in order to shape positive public opinion,” Tengri News reported.
Kazakh Education Minister Gani Beisembayev, speaking in support of the bill, told lawmakers: “Children and teenagers are exposed to information online every day that can negatively impact their ideas about family, morality, and the future.”
The bill will now be voted on in the Kazakh Senate and, if it passes, will go to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev for his signature before it becomes law.
The legislation is likely to go the distance as both houses of the parliament are controlled by parties loyal to the president, who has indicated his support.
Tokayev, who has been Kazakhstan’s head of state since 2019, has in recent months repeatedly stressed the need to uphold “traditional values.”
In March, at a meeting of the Kazakh National Kurultai (Congress), he said, “For decades, so-called democratic moral values, including LGBT, have been imposed on many countries, and under this guise, international nongovernmental foundations and organizations have grossly interfered in their internal affairs.”
Tokayev also went on to accuse the nongovernmental organizations of having “stolen” billions of dollars in the course of their liberal evangelism, and praised U.S. President Donald Trump for his administration’s work to “identify large-scale abuses and expose the political hypocrisy of the deep state and restore traditional moral values deserves support,” the Kazinform International News Agency reported.
The majority-Muslim, but largely secular country, legalized homosexuality in the 1990s; however, social attitudes within Kazakhstan remain deeply conservative.
By Guy Birchall
