Gay community in oskemen, kazakhstan

LGBT rights in Kazakhstan have been slowly evolving, with transgender people being allowed to legally change their gender since and LGBT people permitted to serve in the military since There are small gay communities in various cities like Astana, Aktobe, Almaty, Karaganda, Kostanay, Pavlodar, Petropavl, and Oskemen.

A particularly painful issue within Kazakhstan’s LGBTQ+ community is internalized homophobia – self-directed negativity toward one’s own identity or others in the community. “I’ve always been surprised by how some gay people openly dislike other gay people. They want to be seen as ‘normal,’ so they try to blend in with the crowd.