MINSK — Belarus's upper house of parliament on April 2, 2026, gave final approval to a bill introducing punishments for people who promote LGBTQ+ causes, sending the legislation to President Alexander Lukashenko for his expected signature. The bill had passed the lower house in March 2026.

The legislation makes what it terms the propaganda of homosexual relations, gender change, refusal to have children and pedophilia punishable by fines, community labor and 15-day arrest. Belarus does not recognize same-sex marriages and does not have legal protections for LGBTQ+ rights, though it decriminalized homosexuality in 1994 after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Lukashenko has ruled Belarus, a nation of 9.5 million people, for more than three decades and has publicly mocked homosexuality. Western countries have repeatedly sanctioned Belarus for its crackdown on human rights and for allowing Moscow to use its territory in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

LGBTQ+ groups in Belarus have been shut down, and security forces have regularly raided nightclubs to target private gay parties. TG House, a Belarusian group championing transgender rights, said it documented at least 12 cases of persecution of LGBTQ+ people in Belarus over the past three months, including a police raid on a nightclub in Minsk last month during a private gay party.

"LGBTQ+ people had faced beatings, arrests, persecution and mockery even before the bill's approval, but now law enforcement agencies have received legal grounds for repressions," said Alisa Sarmant, head of TG House. She said the legislation has raised fears among transgender people that they could be denied permission to legally purchase necessary medicines.

"The Belarusian authorities have lumped together gays, lesbians, transgender people, and pedophiles, creating additional grounds for social rejection and stigmatization. Belarus is copying Russia's sad experience, creating unbearable conditions for LGBT+ people," she said. TG House said it has received hundreds of requests from LGBTQ+ people for psychological assistance and for help moving abroad.

The country's top security agency is still known by its Soviet-era name, the KGB.

Russia has adopted laws curtailing LGBTQ+ rights, including bans on changing one's gender on official documents, gender-affirming care, and any public representation of gay or transgender people. The LGBTQ+ movement has been branded as extremist in Russia, and its members can face up to six years in prison.