Russian-style anti-LGBTQ law advances in Kazakhstan to prohibit the promotion of

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

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

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

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

Located between Russia and China, the vast, natural resource-rich former Soviet republic is trying to balance its neighboring superpowers 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 criticized the rise of what he called LGBTQ values.

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

Echoing the language used by Moscow, he added that several NGOs and foundations had used it as a front to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.

Russia adopted its own anti-LGBTQ law in 2013, initially banning what it called the “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” among children. He expanded the measure to adults thereafter Ukraine invaded in 2022 and has intensified a campaign aimed at 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 those in Russia.