Both male and female same-sex sexual activity have been legal in Kazakhstan since late 1997,

when under the revised criminal code same-sex relations between consenting adults was no
longer a criminal offence.[1] Prior to 1997, Article 104 of the Penal Code of Kazakhstan used to
criminalise "buggery". This legislation followed the corresponding Section 121 from the
former Soviet Union, which only specifically criminalised anal intercourse between men.[6] In late
1997 the law was repealed and replaced with a common age of consent for all sexual activity of
16 years. Lesbianism was never a criminal offence. In 1998, consensual sex between same-sex
couples became lawful. There are currently no provisions in the Constitution of Kazakhstan that
criminalise any aspect of same-sex sexual relations.

On 14 June 2012, Defense Minister Adilbek Zhaksybekov was reported to have declared that
gay men are not welcome in the nation’s military, saying that they are exempt because they have
‘a disorder of sexual desire’.
Since 2022, lesbians, gays, and bisexuals are allowed to serve openly in the military.[2] The
ministry of Defense of the Republic of Kazakhstan in 2022, said in an interview that no one is
banned from serving in the military because of their sexual orientation.
On 26 May 2015, the Constitutional Council of Kazakhstan declared a pending bill, which would
have banned the "propaganda of nontraditional sexual orientation", unconstitutional.

The media and civil society community in Kazakhstan secured a significant victory in early 2019: the
government dropped discriminatory and stigmatizing provisions against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender (LGBT) community from the draft bylaws under a newly adopted access to information-
related law in Kazakhstan. This was due in large part to advocacy efforts of the USAID-funded Access to
Information Program.

In January 2019, the Law “On Protecting Children from Information Harmful to Their Health and
Development,” which deals with information disseminated by media, came into effect in Kazakhstan.
Though the law did not reference any specific group, the draft bylaws that were developed to
implement this law contained discriminatory language against LGBT groups. USAID’s Access to
Information Program in partnership with human rights defenders and civil society organizations
launched a campaign to exclude the discriminatory language and requirements from the draft bylaws.
This coalition argued that the bylaws were in violation of Kazakhstan’s international obligations as a
country that has ratified key international treaties and conventions on human rights and freedoms. The
coalition members sent appeals to the Government of Kazakhstan, as well as international
organizations and embassies.

In response to the appeals, three UN Special Rapporteurs and an independent expert sent an official
letter to the Government of Kazakhstan expressing their concern over the discriminatory provisions,
urging officials to remove them from the draft bylaws.

When the adopted access to information-related bylaws were finally published and made official, all
discriminatory language against the LGBT community had been removed and the bylaws are now fully
compliant with Kazakhstan’s international obligations to prevent discrimination.
USAID’s Access to Information Program was implemented by Internews and supported efforts to
improve the legal and policy environment for media in Central Asia. The program ended in September
2019.
"In January 2019 the bylaws of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On Protecting Children from
Information Harmful to Their Health and Development” entered into force, which did not contain the
provisions that discriminate against the LGBT community in the final version. This happened thanks to
the coordinated advocacy efforts of Internews experts, activists and human rights defenders from the
Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, Kazakhstan transgender initiative Alma-TQ, the Kazakhstan
Feminist Initiative Feminita, Amnesty International and the Soros Foundation-Kazakhstan. This
lawmakers' second attempt to pass the discriminatory provisions violating the right to freedom of
expression of LGBT people in Kazakhstan demonstrates that such attempt is not a one-off campaign
but rather a persistently relevant issue in legislator's agenda. Legislative initiatives like this require a
consistent and well concerted response from across the civil society on a systemic basis, especially
when their adoption process goes in a concealed way "under the rug." Aigerim Kamidola, Legal
Advocacy Officer, Kazakhstan Feminist Initiative "Feminita"