Belarus LGBTQI+ rights statement

Do not wait for the formal adoption of the law banning LGBTQ propaganda - support the Belarusian queer community today!

According to the 2023 survey, 74% of LGBTQ+ people living in Belarus consider their state to be the main source of discrimination and violence against the queer community. In the conditions of legal default, when the ruling regime postulates the thesis "now is not the time for laws", we consider it impossible to assess the observance of the rights of LGBTQ+ people by formal criteria.

We call on international actors to:

• speak about the violation of LGBTQ+ rights in Belarus as part of the systemic political repression and severe legal crisis generated by the persistence of an illegitimate authoritarian regime, and not as a localised problem that can be solved by the actions of this regime. We also urge not to rely on official Minsk's reports on gender equality and to keep close liaison with the human rights community in Belarus and CSOs.
• support local opportunities for queers from Belarus who are forced to leave the country due to political repression (humanitarian visas, letters of support for people seeking international protection, long-term residencies, internships, training programmes, etc.).
• support initiatives and projects aimed at informing about the situation with the rights of queer people in Belarus, as well as providing targeted assistance within the country.
• co-operate and consult with the Belarusan human rights sector and Belarusan LGBTQ+ activists in exile when allocating budget funds, support the sustainability of Belarusan queer initiatives that continue their work in the country and in exile.

Here are just a few figures that reflect the actual quality of life of LGBTQ+ people in Belarus:

• 40% of queer people rate their mental state as "bad" or "very bad". 74% of queer people do not receive psychological help.
• 88% of queer people are seriously considering emigration, and this percentage is increasing every year.
• More than 70% of queer people who emigrated from Belarus after 2020 cited political repression as the reason for their departure.

We declare - in 2024, queerphobia and discrimination according to SOGI is not an excess of perpetrators, but a state policy of the Lukashenko regime. According to the Belarus Helsinki Committee's assessment of trends in the human rights situation, today "the state clearly shows that it is not ashamed to single out groups that it will treat differently."

We also recall that the vast majority of repression and discrimination against LGBTQ+ people in Belarus still takes place "behind closed doors". Human rights defenders and CSOs often do not have access to people who are politically persecuted and imprisoned, and organisations and initiatives that have provided targeted assistance and documented cases of discrimination are expelled from the country or forced to work incognito.

We see how the conversation about the observance of the rights of LGBTQ+ people in Belarus is repeatedly broken down by formal questions, which are appropriate to ask only in countries where the rule of law applies. For example, when talking about political repression, activists are often asked how many LGBTQ+ people are in Belarusian prisons today. We reiterate: it is not safe for LGBTQ+ people who have faced politically motivated persecution in Belarus to speak openly about their identity - it is a serious risk to their lives and health. This information cannot be open - and therefore it cannot be a criterion for assessing safety for LGBTQ+ people. Human rights defenders estimate that in 2023-2024, non-normative SOGI has become a new target of state repression along with identities such as political views, attitudes towards the current government and language.

According to the Journalists for Tolerance project, today Belarus is experiencing a record peak of hate speech (in 2023, every second pubic communication contained incorrect language and signs of hate speech). This puts at risk the most vulnerable groups within the LGBTQ+ community: trans*people, queer adolescents, LGBTQ+ people living with HIV, queer parents, LGBTQ+ people with disabilities and/or mental disabilities. An atmosphere of fear, mistrust and total insecurity prevents LGBTQ+ people from seeking help in situations of violence, and constant hate speech from state propaganda normalises discrimination in the eyes of queer people. This particularly affects young LGBTQ+ people who have been living under the state's artificially created "sterile" space, Russian agenda, and constant broadcast of hate speech for 4 years now.

In this regard, we call to refuse to assess the human rights situation in Belarus by formal criteria - over the years we have repeatedly seen how undemocratic regimes skilfully use formal loopholes to nominally meet the criterion of "safe region" while in fact there is a wide institution of repression against dissenting citizens. Today, when de facto state authorities are already issuing de facto warnings to CSOs and businesses on the basis of a law that has not yet been passed de jure, and law enforcement agencies are legally rounding up queer individuals with service dogs, we ask for solidarity and support for those whose voices have been excluded from the political arena for 4 years.