Belarus's prosecutor-general has prepared a bill for lawmakers to discuss that proposes punishing the "promotion of nontraditional relationships," a thinly veiled reference to the country's often-persecuted LGBT community.
Prosecutor-General Andrey Shved told local media on February 19 that the draft law also addresses liability for "pedophilia and the voluntary refusal to have children."
"This project is now undergoing the approval process," he said, without elaborating.
The legislation appears to mirror a move in neighbor and close ally Russia, where President Vladimir Putin’s administration implements the harsh repression of dissent and pushes what it claims are "traditional values."
Recent steps taken by Moscow to restrict access to abortions on the local and national level and the government's decision to declare the nonexistent "international LGBT+ movement" as an "extremist organization" have sounded alarm bells among Russian rights activists.
In Belarus, homosexuality is not illegal. It was decriminalized in 1994 but same-sex marriages are not recognized in the deeply conservative country and there are no antidiscriminatory measures in place to protect the rights of the LGBT community.
SEE ALSO: The Week In Russia: Blaming The People For The 'Regime's Ideology'In 2023, the independent gay rights group ILGA-Europe said Belarus placed 45th out of 49 countries in its annual review of the human rights situation of LGBT people in Europe and Central Asia, noting that "pro-government propagandists regularly called for the persecution of LGBT activists and the closure of LGBT organizations."
Authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who has ruled the country with an iron first since coming to power in 1994, has openly criticized homosexuality, once telling European Union politicians that it's "better to be a dictator than gay."
In a political speech in 2023, Lukashenka said gay men were "perverts" and "the ultimate abomination."