Mimicking Russia, Belarus plans its own anti-‘gay propaganda’ law
Proposal would also penalize ‘voluntary refusal to have children’
Russian ally Belarus is making preparations for a restrictive anti-LGBTQ+ law like Russia’s, with an extra provision targeting childless couples.
Alexis Boddy of City Law School at the University of London writes in The Jurist:
Belarus drafts law punishing the promotion of LGBT+ relationships
The Prosecutor General of Belarus, Andrei Shved, announced [on Feb. 19] that the government has been preparing a bill that would punish the promotion of what they deem to be non-traditional relationships in a move targeted at LGBTQ+ unions. He stated that it was important to not even allow the discussion of the topic and that opponents were attempting to destroy traditional family values and, by extension, Belarus as a nation.
The announcement was made at the joint meeting of the House of Representatives and the Council of the Republic. The bill would establish liability for the promotion of “abnormal relationships, pedophilia and voluntary refusal to have children.” According to the Shved, the bill is already going through the approval procedure.
While it has been legal to be homosexual in Belarus since 1994, there are no safeguards to protect discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, and same-sex unions are not recognized.
LGBTQ+ rights in the country are practically non-existent, with people facing extreme violence and persecution. Rainbow Europe ranked the country 45th out of 49 European countries in terms of their treatment of LGBTQ+ individuals. This latest announcement shows that the Belarusian government is becoming increasingly hostile to LGBTQ+ people. The move will have a severe effect on freedom of expression in the country and mirrors similar [laws] in Russia [excluding the new Belarus provision about “voluntary refusal to have children”].
