Belarusian Parliament passes Russian-inspired law banning ‘LGBT propaganda’

Belarusian lawmakers passed a bill on Thursday criminalising so-called “LGBT propaganda”, as well as the promotion of child-free lifestyles, Belarusian news agency BELTA has reported, echoing similar laws on the books in neighbouring Russia since 2013.

The legislation, which was first proposed over two years ago, was passed by the lower house of parliament last month, and its approval by the upper house on Thursday means that the bill will become law once it is signed by the country’s dictator, Alexander Lukashenko.

The law, which will make the “promotion” of what the authorities term “homosexual relations, gender changes and childlessness” illegal in Belarus, baselessly links all three to the “normalisation of paedophilia”. Individual violators will face fines of up to €260, while businesses can be fined between €1,300–2,000.

In 2013, a similar law was first passed in Russia prohibiting the promotion of “non-traditional family values” to minors. Copycat laws have since been passed in several countries, including Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, while the Russian law was amended in 2022 to extend it to people of any age, not just children.

Although same-sex relations have been legal in Belarus since 1994, LGBT Belarusians still face significant discrimination, violence, legal inequality, and social stigma. According to ILGA-Europe’s Rainbow Map, a project that ranks European countries according to the rights and protections each affords sexual minorities, Belarus comes fifth to last, ranking only above Russia, Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The new anti-LGBT law is part of a sweeping range of amendments to Belarus’s Code on Administrative Offences, which will include 10 new articles and 43 new offences. Another proposed law, which is aimed at undermining Belarus’s exiled opposition movement, would make “illegally representing Belarus at international events” subject to fines of up to €13,000.