“Women are different”: Celebration of LGBT-inclusive diversity as Armenia’s Feminist Platform marks International Women’s Day in Yerevan

“Women are different” was the main slogan Armenia’s Feminist Platform group chose to mark International Women’s Day on March 8. Everyone was invited to join a planned march on that day, regardless of age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, whether they were locals or foreigners, or from villages or cities, all to “celebrate different ways of being a woman”.

Posters during march read: “women are different”, “lesbian”, “bisexual”, “transgender”, “scientist”, “virgin”, “sex worker”, “woman living with HIV”, “cleaner”, “entrepreneur”, “mother”, “single mother”, “model”, “soldier”, “not married”, “footballer / weightlifter”, “woman with disability” and more. Most passersbys reacted positively to the march and showed interest in what they heard and read. Some people, however, mostly young males, were visibly aggravated by the march and even stopped to inform the marchers that such public actions “are shameful and ugly phenomena.”

Read a more detailed article on the march by Unzipped: Gay Armenia.