Kazakhstan has "put the brakes on proposed antigay legislation that threatened to derail its dream" of hosting the Winter Olympics, according to RADIO FREE EUROPE. The bill, which mirrored Russia's "controversial law banning so-called gay propaganda and had already passed both houses of the Kazakh parliament, was recently shot down by a panel vetting the legislation's constitutionality." The Constitutional Council announced on May 26 that it "rejected the bill last week on the grounds that it contained 'vague and ambiguous definitions and terms.'" The "rare rejection left it unclear" whether the bill is "effectively dead, could be sent back to parliament for revision, or revived after the fact, providing Kazakhstan is chosen to host the 2022 Winter Olympics" (RFE, 5/27). EURASIANET's Joanna Lillis reported the announcement came after a group of "household-name sports stars" urged the IOC to "reject Kazakhstan's bid to host the Winter Games in Almaty in 2022, arguing that the law outlawing the 'propaganda' of homosexuality to minors was incompatible with Olympic principles of equality." The 27 signatories included Olympic medalists and athletes who have "excelled in sports ranging from tennis, rowing and wrestling to snowboarding, speed-skating and swimming." Kazakhstan's government has "eagerly promoted" Almaty's bid to host the games, which the administration of President Nursultan Nazarbayev "sees as an opportunity to raise the country's international profile, though critics dismiss it as a costly vanity project that risks spawning the type of rampant corruption that marred the Sochi" Games (EURASIANET, 5/27).
