Under pressure, but not broken: what is happening to LGBTQ+ rights in Belarus, Georgia and Kazakhstan
LGBTQ+ human rights organisation Sfera has published a comparative analysis of anti-gender movements in three post-Soviet countries — and it deserves your attention.
The report is the first to systematically compare how anti-gender movements operate across three countries with very different political regimes: authoritarian Belarus, Georgia in democratic decline, and hybrid Kazakhstan. Its author, Nina Pavlova, conducted nine in-depth interviews with human rights defenders and activists, and carried out a discourse analysis of statements by state and media actors covering 2022–2025.
Here is what matters.
Belarus
consolidated repressive regime
Since 2020, independent civil society has been virtually destroyed. Anti-gender policy is embedded in the logic of fighting "extremism", and queer visibility is treated as a threat to statehood. Russian narratives are reproduced almost word for word — human rights defenders describe the dependency as "total".
Georgia
authoritarian drift
Democratic institutions formally remain in place, but the 2024 law on "family values" effectively legalised discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, and the word "gender" was removed from legislation altogether. Anti-gender rhetoric has become a tool against European integration: any recognition of LGBTQ+ rights is framed as a threat to sovereignty and national identity.
Kazakhstan
hybrid model
The picture is contradictory: 2024 saw stronger penalties for domestic violence — and the simultaneous passage of an "LGBT propaganda" ban. The state acts less as an ideological leader and more as a hidden moderator, letting the anti-gender agenda advance through "grassroots initiatives" and petitions to create the illusion of a bottom-up demand.
Where does the agenda come from?
The research confirms that Russia is a key source and exporter of anti-gender ideology in the region. This manifests through direct copying of legislation, the transfer of "traditional values" rhetoric, organisational ties between anti-gender activists, and Russian-language disinformation campaigns. In Belarus the influence is described as near-total; in Georgia as hybrid; in Kazakhstan as selective but systematic.
Pavlova is careful to stress that this is not simple copying, but an interaction of transnational and local dynamics. Each country has its own agency and its own internal political calculations.
The report is the first to systematically compare how anti-gender movements operate across three countries with very different political regimes: authoritarian Belarus, Georgia in democratic decline, and hybrid Kazakhstan. Its author, Nina Pavlova, conducted nine in-depth interviews with human rights defenders and activists, and carried out a discourse analysis of statements by state and media actors covering 2022–2025.
Here is what matters.
Belarus
consolidated repressive regime
Since 2020, independent civil society has been virtually destroyed. Anti-gender policy is embedded in the logic of fighting "extremism", and queer visibility is treated as a threat to statehood. Russian narratives are reproduced almost word for word — human rights defenders describe the dependency as "total".
Georgia
authoritarian drift
Democratic institutions formally remain in place, but the 2024 law on "family values" effectively legalised discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, and the word "gender" was removed from legislation altogether. Anti-gender rhetoric has become a tool against European integration: any recognition of LGBTQ+ rights is framed as a threat to sovereignty and national identity.
Kazakhstan
hybrid model
The picture is contradictory: 2024 saw stronger penalties for domestic violence — and the simultaneous passage of an "LGBT propaganda" ban. The state acts less as an ideological leader and more as a hidden moderator, letting the anti-gender agenda advance through "grassroots initiatives" and petitions to create the illusion of a bottom-up demand.
Where does the agenda come from?
The research confirms that Russia is a key source and exporter of anti-gender ideology in the region. This manifests through direct copying of legislation, the transfer of "traditional values" rhetoric, organisational ties between anti-gender activists, and Russian-language disinformation campaigns. In Belarus the influence is described as near-total; in Georgia as hybrid; in Kazakhstan as selective but systematic.
Pavlova is careful to stress that this is not simple copying, but an interaction of transnational and local dynamics. Each country has its own agency and its own internal political calculations.
"Time is cyclical, and the situation will always change. The question is how to keep the community safe so that people can survive this moment."
— anonymous human rights defender, Kazakhstan
— anonymous human rights defender, Kazakhstan
What about resistance?
Despite the pressure, activist communities continue to operate.
Strategies named by the human rights defenders themselves include:
Despite the pressure, activist communities continue to operate.
Strategies named by the human rights defenders themselves include:
- horizontal networks that are difficult to dismantle all at once;
- a proactive agenda rather than reactive defence — pushing your own issues forward, not only fighting back;
- international advocacy through UN and Council of Europe mechanisms;
- engaging the "undecided" — the roughly 80% who have not yet taken a side;
- a feminist decolonial approach and care for the community's mental health.