Kyrgyzstan

In Kyrgyzstan, consensual same-sex sexual activity was decriminalized in 1998, aligning the age of consent for both different-sex and same-sex sexual acts at 16. Despite this legal progress, the country still does not recognize same-sex marriages or civil unions, and a 2016 constitutional amendment explicitly bans same-sex marriage. A provision that had, in some cases, allowed transgender people to change their legal gender markers was removed in a 2020 amendment to the Law on Civil Status. In early 2026, a member of parliament proposed a draft bill that goes further by defining sex as immutable, explicitly banning legal gender recognition, and prohibiting “any actions” with regard to minors “aimed at changing their gender identity or forming ideas about the possibility of changing the sex recorded at birth, including medical, surgical, and psychological interventions for this purpose.”

The new proposal follows two discriminatory laws adopted in 2023 and 2024 that silence speech on sexual and gender diversity and restrict the activities of LGBTIQ organizations. In 2023, the government amended the Child Protection Law to ban the sharing of information on diverse sexual orientations and gender identities, considered “promotion of nontraditional sexual relations.” In April 2024, the Law on Foreign Representatives (“foreign agents” law) was adopted, introducing reporting requirements for foreign-funded NGOs, severely hampering their operations and threatening media freedom. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights reported in 2020 that “hate-fueled rhetoric and attitudes toward the LGBTIQ community were rampant,” amplified by incitement to violence by members of parliament.

There is no law that protects LGBTIQ people from anti-LGBTIQ hate crimes, which are common and often go unreported for fear of secondary victimization. In 2021 alone, ILGA-Europe reported over a hundred cases of hate-based crimes against LGBTIQ people. Data from the Eurasian Coalition on Male Health (ECOM) shows persistent high levels of violence, extortion, and abuse—particularly by law enforcement and health care workers—against people of queer experience in 2024.