Lawmakers in Kyrgyzstan have voted in favour of adopting a tougher version of Russia’s law against ‘gay propaganda’.

If passed, the Kyrgyz version would mandate jail terms for gay-rights activists and others, including journalists, who create “a positive attitude toward non-traditional sexual relations.”



The vaguely-worded bill passed its first reading on Wednesday with a vote of 79 to 7, AKIpress reported (the 120-seat legislature is rarely full). During a meeting last week to discuss the bill, one lawmaker said the draft is not tough enough and proposed to increase sentences from up to one year to three years. If it passes two more readings, the bill will go to President Almazbek Atambayev – a staunch Russia ally – for his signature.

One of the bill’s authors, Kurmanbek Dyikanbayev, often sounds as if he is repeating Kremlin talking points. Dyikanbayev told Radio Azattyk last week that he sponsored the bill to protect Kyrgyzstan’s “traditional families.” He also blames Western democracy for moral degeneracy and for encouraging homosexuality.

Bishkek-based LGBT-rights organization Labrys, whose advocacy would be outlawed by the bill, notes that the legislation contradicts numerous human rights provisions in Kyrgyzstan’s constitution. Nika Yuryeva of Labrys said she fears the bill will encourage more violence against the LGBT community.

In a detailed report released in January, Human Rights Watch alleged that Kyrgyz police subject gay and bisexual men to “physical, sexual, and psychological violence; arbitrary detention; and extortion under the threat of violence.” On occasion the abuse “rose to the level of torture,” the report said. In response, the Interior Ministry refused to acknowledge any problem and the country’s top cleric issued a fatwa against same sex relations, saying the government should be wary of “public organisations that disseminate social discord.”

Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev. Photograph: Vyacheslav Oseledko/AFP/Getty Images

The US Embassy has expressed “deep concern” about the bill. “No one should be silenced or imprisoned because of who they are or whom they love. Laws that discriminate against one group of people threaten the fundamental rights of all people,” the embassy said in a statement on 10 October.

Kyrgyz legislators are also pushing for another Russian-style bill, which would stigmatise non-profit organisations that receive foreign funds as “foreign agents” — a Soviet colloquialism for spies. The original law in Russia, passed in 2012, has silenced NGOs and, activists allege, been used selectively to close down Kremlin critics. One of the lead supporters in Kyrgyzstan, Tursunbai Bakir uulu, a former human rights ombudsman, told EurasiaNet.org last year that the bill would protect Kyrgyzstan from foreign “sabotage” and “sexual emancipation”.

Many rights activists in Bishkek believe Russia would like to turn a pliant country once known as Central Asia’s “island of democracy” into a moral ally in its fight with the West. Journalist and gay-rights activist Masha Gessen, writing in the New York Times on 5 October, said Kyrgyzstan is the “perfect lab rat: it is small and poor and extremely susceptible to Russian pressure.”

Several times this year, nationalist youth groups have rallied against gay rights, at times using homophobic slurs to denounce human rights activists generally.