A top lawmaker in Uzbekistan is calling for mass deportations of LGBTQ+ people following a violent crackdown in the central Asian country.
Alisher Kadyrov, leader of the political party Milliy Tiklanish (or “National Revival”), urged Uzbekistan in a Monday interview to revoke the citizenship of its LGBTQ+ population. He claimed that residents of the Muslim majority nation, which has pushed democratic reforms since the 2016 death of authoritarian Islam Karimov, would never accept homosexuality “even after 1,000 years.”
“Uzbeks can modernize,” he told the AlterEgo YouTube channel, in comments reported by the Russia-backed news outlet RT. “They can change their worldview. But to accept sodomy or a man marrying a man? Uzbek society will never accept that.”
Kadyrov, whose political party commands the largest share of seats in Uzbekistan’s parliament, asserted that his proposal is a pragmatic one. By denaturalizing and deporting LGBTQ+ Uzbeks, he claimed that they would have a better chance at applying for political asylum in countries like Canada or Sweden.
The lawmaker alleged that members of the LGBTQ+ community largely agree with the idea. Kadyrov said that “over 100” individuals reached out to him after he “put forward this proposal on social networks” to say they support it.
“They said that they cannot get visas from those countries that condemn Uzbekistan for its attitude towards LGBT people,” he said, as Eurasianet reported.
The remarks followed recent violence against LGBTQ+ people in Uzbekistan, which criminalizes same-sex intimacy between men with up to three years imprisonment. An Uzbek blogger and activist, Miraziz Bazarov, was beaten outside his apartment in April after calling for queer-inclusive events at Islamic holy sites, according to Reuters. He was hospitalized after reports say the assailants broke his leg.
While Bazarov is not queer or transgender, the assault was reportedly followed by a mob attack on an event for K-Pop fans that he organized. The individuals behind the violence allegedly thought the gathering was an LGBTQ+ rights rally.
In the weeks since, LGBTQ+ Uzbeks told Reuters that they have been forced into hiding, despite the fact that their identities had long been tolerated even in a repressive society. One individual, who remained anonymous, claimed that gangs have taken to the streets to “question [people] about their sexuality” and said LGBTQ+ people “try not to leave their homes” or “meet in cafes.”
“Many want to leave the country,” he told the publication, adding: “They are afraid to step outside. Some have left their home cities, fearing for their lives.”
Even before the recent surge in violent hate, advocacy groups claimed that queer and transgender people faced frequent persecution in Uzbekistan, especially by police. While the criminalization of sodomy is rarely enforced, Human Rights Watch said in a March report that gay men face “arbitrary arrests, threats, extortion, psychological pressure, and physical attacks by both police and non-state actors.”
Earlier this year, the country’s parliament introduced a bill that could outlaw virtually all forms of LGBTQ+ advocacy, potentially leading to even more harassment.
Kadyrov claimed in this week’s interview that he doesn’t support LGBTQ+ Uzbeks being “targeted with violence” and added that his proposed solution is already “international practice.” “There are 26 countries that practice deportation,” he said, although he did not cite specific nations that kick out residents for being LGBTQ+.
Around 70 countries around the world criminalize same-sex relations, the majority of which are former colonized nations.
But despite the lawmaker’s claims that his suggestion represents a tolerant view, his prior comments on queer and transgender people tell a different story. The news publication Voice of America has previously referred to opposition to LGBTQ+ equality as Kadyrov’s “signature issue.”
“We … will not and should not tolerate these people,” the outlet quotes him as saying. “Some of them are just sick, and we should treat them. Others are criminals, and we must punish them.”
The parliamentarian has also strongly opposed Uzbekistan joining onto the United Nations’ efforts to further LGBTQ+ rights through its Human Rights Council. “Let’s not do business with those who make this a condition of engagement,” he said in comments reported by Voice of America.
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