The Belarus parliament passed a bill on Thursday criminalizing “propaganda” for LGBTQA+ relationships, sex change, child-free lifestyles, and pedophilia, with punishment including fines, community service, or 15 days detention. Parliament drafted the bill in February 2024. The bill will now go to President Aleksander Lukashenko, who is expected to sign it.

Belarus decriminalized homosexuality in 1994, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, but same-sex marriage has not been recognized in the country. In 2024, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus classified the LGBTQA+ movement as “non-traditional sexual relationship or behavior,” the same classification that is given to necrophilia, pedophilia and voyeurism. In September of the same year, 15 LGBTQA+ individuals were arrested by Belarusian authorities, with some being subject to physical and psychological abuse. Others were forced to flee the country.

Belarus is mimicking Russia’s anti-LGBTQ+ policies: Russia passed a new bill prohibiting LGBTQ+ propaganda in 2022. The European Court of Human Rights found that the 2013 version of the same law was discriminatory. In 2023, Russia banned gender-affirming surgeries and labeled the LGBTQ+ movement as “extremist.” In 2024, Russia relabeled the LGBTQ+ movement as a terrorist organization. The crackdown on the LGBTQA+ community in Russia continued in the form of bar raids, fines for Telegram posts, fines on bookstores for LGBTQA+ books, fines to Apple, criminal proceedings, and more. In 2024, Russia banned propaganda of a childfree lifestyle and outlawed propaganda of abortions a year later.

International organizations and rights groups have also been voicing concerns over LGBTQA+ rights in Kazakhstan, Turkey, Hungary, Georgia and Bulgaria.