Gay smooch ad creators lose in court; situation of sexual minorities in Kazakhstan in spotlight

Specialized Interdistrict Administrative Court of Almaty has found the creators of the scandalous gay smooch ad guilty and ordered to pay a fine, Tengrinews correspondent reports.

The scandal revolves around the poster depicting Kazakh composer Kurmangazy Sagyrbayuly kissing Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. It was developed by ads agency Havas Worldwide Kazakhstan (legally going by the name LLC “Euro RSCG Kazakhstan”) and advertised a gay bar and club “Studio 69” located in Almaty at the intersection of the streets carrying the names of the two cultural figures. Not everyone in Kazakhstan has found this quibble funny.

Right after the poster was submitted for a creative ads contest Red Jolbors Fest, a special competition for Central Asian advertising agencies, it received negative attention from the public. Winning the third place in Outdoor Advertising category, Havas Worldwide Kazakhstan had also earned itself a headache.

The poster angered the public in Kazakhstan. An overwhelming majority of social media users in the country called for the creators of the poster to be punished by law.

Looks like some wishes come true. Judge Rauza Aliyeva has ordered the head of the ads agency Khamitzhanova Daria and the agency itself to pay fines in two separate cases - 129 640 tenge ($714) and 185 200 tenge ($1,020). The court cited a section of the Article 349 of the Administrative Offences Code of Kazakhstan - “Production, distribution, placement and use of advertising of the products (works and services) that are banned from advertising by laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan”.

The defense stated that the poster was never distributed as an advertisement and was not intended to be used as one, since it was created solely for the purposes of the competition. In addition, Khamitzhanova said that “Studio 69” did not order the poster and that it was someone named G. K. Bugubayeva who had started the dissemination of the poster on the Internet on her own accord.

Khamitzhanova’s lawyer Jokhar Utebekov declared that the Department of Internal Affairs of Almaty - that was the plaintiff in the case - only had the jurisdiction over media cases. Since the poster was never actually used as an advertisement and was not intended for public use, the case did not fall under the jurisdiction of this body, he said. The lawyer also noted that there was no law in Kazakhstan that would ban advertising clubs.

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scandal Central Asia CIS Court gay homophobia homosexuality human rights Kazakh Kazakhstan lesbian news advertising