Tag Archives: LGBT rights

Kyrgyzstan passes anti-gay law

OCT. 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s parliament voted to pass a law that bans so-called gay propaganda, seemingly playing to Russia which has passed a similar law already and against the United States which called the new legislation an attack on democracy. Kyrgyzstan is increasingly leaning towards Russia in world affairs.

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(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)

US criticises Kyrgyz anti-gay law

OCT. 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The United States criticised moves by Kyrgyzstan to make so-called “gay propaganda” illegal as being harmful to democracy. The laws are similar to those introduced by Russia. The US embassy put out a rare harshly worded statement which said: “Sweeping limits on civil society harm democracy.”

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(News report from Issue No. 204, published on Oct. 15 2014)

Kyrgyz MPs prepare anti-gay laws

OCT. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Controversial anti-gay legislation carbon-copied from Russia, is sailing through parliamentary reviews in Kyrgyzstan, triggering concerns about Moscow’s influence over Bishkek.

Parliament’s committee for human rights accepted the bill last week and the education committee was also expected to approve it. Advocates say the law, which will fine or jail citizens promoting “a positive relationship to homosexuality” in the media or around children, is designed to preserve traditional family values.

The law and its justification bear a strong resemblance to one passed in Russia in the summer of last year. Another bill being considered by the parliament, on recognising NGOs as foreign agents, echoes legislation voted through Russia’s State Duma in 2012.

Critics argue that parliamentarians are courting Russia’s favour, important to any politician with serious ambitions in Kyrgyzstan.

Writing in the New York Times, Masha Gessen, a former editor of RFE/RL’s Russian service said pro-Russian publications have infiltrated the Kyrgyz media space over the past few years and that Kyrgyzstan was a perfect lab rat. “It is small and poor and extremely susceptible to Russian pressure,” she wrote.

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(News report from Issue No. 203, published on Oct. 8 2014)

Kazakh politician says DNA samples will uncover gays

SEPT. 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The message was clear.

In front of a coarse sign with a line running through it showing two stickmen having gay sex beside the warning “Homosexualism is a threat to the nation”, Kazakh politician Dauren Babamuratov, leader of a small nationalist faction in parliament, called on the government to ban gay men from holding various positions in parliament. He also claimed that blood samples could determine the sexual orientation of a person.

“I think it is very easy to identify a gay person by his or her DNA,” he said according to media.

“A blood test can show the presence of degeneratism in a person.”

His comments will find support in Kazakhstan where anti-homosexual sentiment is running high.

Last month a poster for an Almaty gay club depicting Russian poet Alexander Pushkin and Kazakh composer Kurmangazy Sagyrbayuly sparked an uproar.

There have been moves in Kazakhstan to introduce the type of laws that Russian already has in place that bans the discussion of homosexuality in schools.

Attitudes towards homosexuality in Kazakhstan have improved over the past few years. A handful of gay friendly bars have popped up but the homosexual community is still wary of flaunting itself too publicly.

Earlier this year, The Conway Bulletin carried a report from outside a nightclub in Almaty that described verbal abuse being hurled at people standing in the queue to enter the club.

Relatively, though, Almaty is the most liberal city for gay rights in Central Asia. Homosexuals from across the region tend to migrate to Almaty to work and live as there is a degree of tolerance. In most other cities in the region, homosexuals are often beaten in the street.

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(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept.17 2014)

Street art turns political in Georgia

TBILISI/Georgia, JULY 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — From Basquiat to Banksy, politically charged street art has been a fixture of western cities for decades. Now, though, the walls and underpasses of Georgian capital Tbilisi are becoming an open-air gallery for a similar sort of subversive expression.

“It started after the war,” 34-year-old Natia, who runs workshops for aspiring street artists, said referring to the 2008 war with Russia. “One of our friends started using a stencil of Putin’s face, and people just got more creative.”

Today, that protest focuses on two of the most important issues for Georgia’s increasingly vocal liberal youth — gay rights and the decriminalization of marijuana. Graphic artist Musya Qeburia, 23, witnessed a police raid in June on her friend’s party. The police detained several guests for urine tests.

“They just came and took them for no reason, I was angry,” she said. In response, she erected what has become Tbilisi’s most celebrated piece, a line of figures, including Yoda, Super Mario and Brussels statue the Manneken Piss queuing to offer urine samples to a pair of Georgian police officers, one of whom looks like Chuck Norris (see photo on page 1).

The piece went viral on social networks, and according to Musya it has had a big impact.

But the reaction is not always positive. Rusa, 29, with three friends repainted a prominent central Tbilisi staircase in the colours of the rainbow flag, the symbol of gay rights.

“It was a silent, anonymous protest, silent because of the violence last year,” said Rusa, referring to an anti-gay riot in Tbilisi in 2013. “There were pictures of the staircase, people noticed. Then two days later city hall came and destroyed the staircase and reconstructed it (without the paint).”

Musya is undeterred. “They can only destroy,” she said. “They can’t make anything beautiful.”

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(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)

Anti gay protesters march in Georgia

May 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian Orthodox groups rallied in Tbilisi against a new law designed to protect same-sex relationships. Media estimated that there were several hundred people at the rally, underlining the conservative nature of Georgian society. The Georgian Orthodox Church retains a lot of power in Georgia.

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(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)

Anti gay protesters march in Georgia

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(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)

Georgian Patriarch wants family day

MAY 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The head of the Georgian Orthodox Church Patriarch Ilia II called for people to mark a new day of “Strength of Family and Respect for Parents” on May 17, the same day as the International Day Against Homophobia. The Orthodox Church is regarded as anti-gay rights. Georgia has introduced a law protecting same-sex rights.

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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)

Georgia’s anti-discrimination law fuels tension

MAY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s parliament passed an anti-discrimination bill it needed to implement for further integration into the EU but the conservative Orthodox Church has said it will protest against it.

Media reported that Georgia’s parliament passed the law unanimously.

The bill, its supporters and its detractors, give a good insight into the division coursing through Georgian society between modernisers and traditionalists.

The EU, which Georgia is desperate to join, has called on legislation that protects the rights of minorities. This has been generally accepted by Georgians, although the conservative Orthodox Church continues to rile against it.

And the Orthodox Church in Georgia is powerful. Patriarch Ilia II is considered a genuine power-broker, politicians cosy up to religious leaders and priests lead demonstrations. Last year, priests led a march against a gay rights parade that triggered violence. Tolerance in modern day Georgia only goes so far.

For the Church, the new laws are virtually heresy and it has promised to protest against it. Their main difficulty with the law is its protection of homosexuality.

Patriarch Ilia II was succinct. “Not a single believer will accept such law,” he said.

For NGOs pushing for the new legislation it has also been a slight disappointment. They were disappointed that the law finally adopted had been watered down from its original state.

Expect more tension between modernisers and traditionalists.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)

Homophobia seethes in Kazakhstan

ALMATY/Kazakhstan, APRIL 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — In Kazakhstan’s former capital, the weekend is for parties but, it appears, not everybody is invited.

Down a side street, just off one of the main streets running through Almaty, a group of five or six young men wearing leather jackets smoked cigarettes and shouted insults at the men queuing to enter a gay bar on the opposite side of the road.

The insults grew louder and stronger. Nobody stepped in to stop the abuse.

Being homosexual in Kazakhstan is far from easy. The Soviet legacy of the punishment of buggery and the revival of the strong traditional values of the country’s macho nomadic heritage both play against homosexuality.

This, though, according to a gay rights activist in Almaty goes against the tradition of the city itself.

“Almaty has a history of more than 100 years of mild tolerance towards homosexuality,” the activist who preferred to stay anonymous said in hushed tones below chatter floating across a central Almaty coffee shop.

“During the Tsarist times, Panfilov Park (then Pushkin Park) was used as a pick-up place by Russian men. This was the most gay-friendly city in the whole of Central Asia.”

But now momentum across the former Soviet Union, led by Moscow, has triggered a raft of legislation against homosexuality. Kazakhstan’s lower house of parliament has been holding an ongoing debate on just how to repress homosexuality in society.

A university professor in Almaty described the impact. “There are several professionals who conceal their sexual orientation in the workplace,” he said. Almaty’s former reputation as a tolerant city appears broken.

(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)