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.

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