We’ve posted a video from last month’s presentation on Homophobia in Armenia and already within hours the homophobes have started to lash out against the video. Please visit the video on YouTube and post comments of support for greater awareness about issues of homophobia in Armenia and the global Armenian community.
Via Unzipped:
The Women’s Resource Center in cooperation with other NGOs is launching the activites for the Month dedicated to women’s issues in Armenia.
While all the events sound great, there is one event in particular of interest to AGLA members & friends:
MARCH 12
FILM and DISCUSSION on lesbian women @ 5pm – Zarubyan 34
Recently the Women-Oriented Women’s (WOW) Collective (Queering Yerevan) in Armenia published an Open Letter against homophobia, hate and intolerance spread by the Armenian media and in statements made by some representatives of civil society and politicians in response to Armenia’s endorsement of the UN gay rights statement.
Even though the general absence of any desire to ask fundamental questions about homosexuality, male homosexuality in Armenia has been consistently described as a threat to national security, a result of accepting European decadent values or a pathology and disease, while homosexual women have been denied of existence all together or condemned in not fitting into the image of a “proper” Armenian woman.
Some of the most recent publications which disseminate hatred towards homosexuals and can potentially become a source of violence, include the article “Armenian lesbians are becoming more active” in Aravot daily (Jan. 22, 2009, http://new.aravot.am/am/articles/culture/54469/view); an interview with the rising star of the Republican Party Edward Shahmazanov in the same newspaper, in which the prominent politician claims that he is anti-gay; and the following statement by the head of the “Sustainable Human Development” agency in Armenia Karine Danielyan: “It’s been always considered that 4-5% of humanity has such pathologies…these should be regarded as a disease.”
Read the entire Letter at: http://queeringyerevan.blogspot.com/2009/01/open-letter-against-intolerance.html
(via: http://gayarmenia.blogspot.com/2009/01/open-letter.html)
