The reQUEST human rights team in Kazakhstan announced the application of the law banning "propaganda of non-traditional sexual orientation" against its lgbtpropaganda.kz platform. About this organization reported on the Instagram page.
According to the organization, we are talking about blocking the lgbtpropaganda.kz website, which was launched on March 2, 2026 to monitor the application of the law, legal analysis and educational work.
On 4 March, human rights defenders began receiving messages and calls from Kazakh police, and on 8 March they were invited to a police station to explain a complaint about alleged "LGBT propaganda". According to human rights activists, during the conversation, the employees were interested in the purpose of the site and the content of the published materials.
From March 30 to April 5, the team recorded failures in access to the site in Kazakhstan. After checking through telecom operators and monitoring services, reQUEST said that the resource was unavailable in the country, although it continued to open from abroad.
On April 6, the organization sent a request to government agencies demanding to provide a decision to block, legal grounds and indicate what kind of content was recognized as illegal.
According to reQUEST, on April 21, the Information Committee of the Ministry of Culture and Information confirmed the restriction of access to the site, citing the provisions of the law banning "propaganda of non-traditional sexual orientation." At the same time, according to the organization, the department did not provide the decision to block and a detailed assessment of the content that was considered to violate the law.
Judging by the published materials, the ministry's response indicated that "mass media products should not contain propaganda of non-traditional sexual orientation," so an order was sent against the site to restrict access.
reQUEST reported that it had filed a lawsuit with the court demanding to recognize the order of the Ministry of Culture as illegal, restore access to the site and provide grounds for blocking.
According to the team, on May 29, the court in Astana accepted the case for consideration, a preliminary hearing was scheduled for June 8, after which a court hearing is expected.
This is the first publicly publicized case of the law banning "propaganda of non-traditional sexual orientation" against an Internet platform after the entry into force of the norm.
According to the explanation of the Ministry of Culture, "propaganda" is understood as the purposeful formation of a positive public opinion. At the same time, news, scientific and statistical materials in themselves should not be considered a violation.
reQUEST claims that the website it created published human rights materials, analysis of the law, its possible consequences and international reaction to it.
- The ban on "LGBT propaganda" was included in a package of legislative amendments signed by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in December 2025 and entered into force on March 2, 2026.
- Responsibility was enshrined in Article 456 of the Code of Administrative Offenses: for the first violation, a fine of 20 MCI is provided, for the second - 40 MCI or administrative arrest up to 10 days.
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