Kazakhstan Politicians Call for DNA Testing to Identify Gays

Political conservative leaders in Kazakhstan are following Russia's lead and calling for government to ban gay propaganda and implement DNA testing to identify LGBT people.

"We have stooped so low that LGBTs no longer hide their orientations," Dauren Babamuratov, the leader of the nationalist movement called "Future" told The Independent. "This means they no longer hide their [sexual] orientation. I think it is easy to identify a gay person by his or her DNA. A blood test can show the presence of degeneratism in a person."

There was recent outrage in Kazakhstan after a gay club poster in Almaty, the largest Kazakh city, depicted a gay kiss between Russian poet Alexander Pushkin and Kazakh composer Kurmangazy Sagyrbayuly.

"There is no gay propaganda in Kazakhstan, but there is homophobia," Kazakh activist and journalist Zhanar Sekerbayeva said, according to Tengri News. He said the Future movement "is carrying absolutely patriarchal views. We propagate nothing, we don't organize pride parades, we are not shouting slogans in the street. Outlawing us would be a discrimination."

Kazakhstan is a former soviet state that passed the "Code on Marriage and Family" in 1998 and the Kazakh government overturned the anti-sodomy laws. Politicians in Kazakhstan are now trying to make changes to the code to further hinder LGBT community members from enjoying full freedom.

"The question of gay marriage is Kazakhstan has never been on the agenda," Sekerbayeva told Tengri News. "No one has been promoting it. There is only homophobia and discrimination against women."