There are gays and lesbians among Kazakhstan officials

There are gays and lesbians among Kazakhstan officials, Tengrinews.kz reports citing Director of Kazakhstan Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law Roza Akylbekova as saying at the round-table meeting called LGBT (lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders) life in Kazakhstan. Answering the question on whether there are sexual minorities among officials and state workers, Roza Akylbekov assured: “Of course, there are, why not? I am so sure, because I've got friends that belong to these groups. I don't see anything abnormal in that. I’m OK with that. Their personality is what matters to me first of all,” she said. According to Akylbekova, it is very difficult for sexual minorities to get a job: “They are either fired or not hired. This is an unspoken rule among many commercial structures, let alone among the state structures. These people are discriminated anyway,” she explained. According to Director of Amulet public union Valentina Ragoza, LGBT representatives of Kazakhstan currently face many problems: property issues, children adoption, inability to openly talk about their orientation, people’s illiteracy, complete legal and sexual illiteracy. “Kazakhstan signed several international conventions obliging it to protect people from discrimination. But sexual minorities are currently not protected in any way,” Ragoza said.