Legalizing LGBTQIA discrimination in Belarus.
In Belarus, a draft law punishing the “promotion of non-traditional relationships” – which refers to LGBTQIA relationships – is being prepared.
This development (or backward step, to be more apt) was announced by Belarusian state news agency Belta, which quoted the country’s prosecutor general, Andrei Shved, as saying that a bill was prepared establishing administrative liability for promoting “abnormal relationships, pedophilia, and the voluntary refusal to have children”. This draft law is now undergoing an approval procedure.
The discriminatory bill is expected to pass, with Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko recognized as anti-LGBTQIA, once publicly mocked LGBTQIA people by calling gay men “perverts” and “the ultimate abomination”.
Interestingly, homosexuality was decriminalized in Belarus in 1994, even if the country still does not recognize marriage equality.