Belarus’s parliament on April 2 passed legislation aimed at tightening restrictions on LGBTQ+ rights, introducing penalties for people who promote LGBTQ+ causes. The upper house gave final approval after the lower house passed the bill, which then was set to move to authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko for his expected signature before taking effect.
The bill sets out punishments for what it defines as “propaganda of homosexual relations, gender charge, refusal to have children and pedophilia,” including fines, community labor and up to 15 days in arrest. Belarus decriminalized homosexuality in 1994 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but it does not recognize same-sex marriages and lacks protections for LGBTQ+ rights, according to the reporting.
The vote came as Belarus—alongside Russia—faces Western sanctions over human-rights abuses and over allowing Moscow to use its territory in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine that began in 2022. Over the years, LGBTQ+ groups in Belarus have been shut down, and security forces have repeatedly raided nightclubs to target private gay parties, rights defenders have said.
Alisa Sarmant, head of TG House, said LGBTQ+ people had faced beatings, arrests, persecution and mockery even before the bill’s approval, but that the new law provides additional legal grounds for repressions. She said TG House has documented at least 12 cases of persecution of LGBTQ+ people in Belarus over the past three months, including a police raid on a nightclub in Minsk last month during a private gay party.
Sarmant said the legislation has raised fears among transgender people that they could be denied permission to legally purchase necessary medicines. TG House said it has already received hundreds of requests from LGBTQ+ people for psychological assistance and help moving abroad.
She also criticized the scope of the bill, saying the Belarusian authorities have “lumped together gays, lesbians, transgender people, and pedophiles,” creating “additional grounds for social rejection and stigmatization.” In her view, “Belarus is copying Russia’s sad experience, creating unbearable conditions for LGBT+ people.”
The reporting said Russia has adopted similarly restrictive laws, including bans on changing one’s gender on official documents, gender-affirming care and any public representation of gay or transgender people. It said the LGBTQ+ movement in Russia has been branded as extremist, and its members can face up to six years in prison.