New Delhi, April 3 -- The Belarus parliament passed a bill Thursday to introduce punishments for people who promote LGBTQ+ causes, in an echo of restrictions set up in neighboring ally Russia.

The upper house gave final approval for the legislation following its passage last month by the lower house, and it goes next to authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko for his expected signature before becoming law.

The bill makes the "propaganda of homosexual relations, gender charge, refusal to have children and pedophilia" punishable by fines, community labor and 15-day arrest.

Belarus decriminalized homosexuality in 1994 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but it doesn't recognize same-sex marriages and lacks protection for LGBTQ+ r...