Kazakhstan Blocks LGBTQ Website for the First Time Under "Propaganda" Law

In Kazakhstan — a country in Central Asia — authorities have blocked the informational website lgbtpropaganda.kz. The Kazakh human rights group reQUEST stated that this is the first site blocked under the new law banning “LGBT propaganda,” which Kazakhstan copied from neighboring Russia. Activists have sued the country’s Ministry of Culture and Information.

The site was launched on March 2, 2026, for monitoring violations, legal analysis, and educating people about the rights of the LGBTQ community. As early as March 4, the creators started receiving calls from the police, and on March 8, they were summoned to give explanations regarding a complaint about alleged “propaganda.”

In late March, problems with access to the site began. In response to the activists’ request, the Ministry of Culture confirmed that the resource was blocked specifically because of the rules banning “propaganda.” Currently, the site is inaccessible anywhere in the world: the administrators have stopped paying for the platform on which it was hosted.

A preliminary court hearing for the lawsuit against the ministry is scheduled for June 8. Human rights defenders are trying to challenge the authorities’ actions.

The blocking is significant because it shows how anti-LGBTQ laws created in Russia are spreading to other countries in the region. Although the Kazakh authorities had previously restricted access to LGBTQ resources (for example, a website on sexual education for teenagers was blocked in 2024), there is now a formal legal tool for doing so.