The Changing Face of Queer Activism in Kazakhstan

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaper

Abstract

While Kazakhstan decriminalised consensual same-sex conduct in 1997, the lack of legislative protection along with a climate of fear and societal homophobia characterise the lives of Kazakhstani LGBTQ people (Human Rights Watch, 2015). Recently there has been a change in the visibility of queer Kazakhstani people. In February 2015, the law on “The Protection of Children from Information Harmful to their Health and Development” was approved by Kazakhstan’s Senate and passed to the first president Nursultan Nazarbayev for signature. Similar to Russia's “propaganda law”, the Kazakhstani law proposed to ban the sharing of information related to “nontraditional” sexualities in settings where children might receive or encounter that information. While Kazakhstan's constitutional council found the legislation unconstitutional, the possibility of passing the law raised debate in the media and the general public. Moreover, several LGBTQ activist organisations emerged in the country since 2015, establishing a presence online and in developing queer communities across Kazakhstan. In this paper, I am interested in the changes in the visibility of the queer community and recent changes in the activist activity in Kazakhstan. This paper is based on the discourse analysis of Kazakhstani and foreign media as well as eleven interviews conducted in three cities in Kazakhstan in November 2017. It consists of the following sections: (1) an outline of the recent changes in LGBT activist activity and media representation; (2) an examination of state regulation of queer people in Kazakhstan and its impact on LGBT activism; and (3) a discussion of different forms that activism takes in Kazakhstan, meaning and the role of activism in queer Kazakhstani peoples’ everyday lives. The paper concludes by considering the implications of the recent changes of the queer activism in Kazakhstan in light of the recent changes of the political landscape.

Conference

ConferenceQuiet Revolution? Alternative sexualities taking place in Europe and the post-Soviet region
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityCardiff
Period19/09/19 → …
Internet address

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