LGBT Activists Targeted in Hate Crime, then Mocked by Hospital Staff

On February 15, 2016, 3 unidentified persons attacked 5 LGBT activists in central Yerevan by physically assaulting them. The assailants cursed and began beating one of the activists, and when the victim’s friends rushed to help, they too were subjected to beatings. The attackers mocked the physical appearance of the first victim, and used homophobic slurs. Two of the victims are staff members of PINK Armenia. The victims filed a report on the attack with the police shortly afterward. The following day, when the first victim admitted himself to the N1 hospital in Yerevan, he once again faced discrimination, being told by medical professionals, “Come, let’s do a blood test on you. Let’s see if you have a deviance.” PINK has filed a complaint with the Ministry of Health about the conduct of the medical professionals. 

PINK Armenia thanks all for the supportive statements following the attack, and will keep you updated on the investigation process.

IDAHOT in Armenia

Several advocacy and public events took place in Yerevan on the occasion of International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. The awareness about the Day has been successfully increased covering different layers of the society.

On the eve of IDAHOT, activists made the uncompromising statement of Stonewall “Some people are gay, get over it” available on the streets of Yerevan for passers-by.

PINK Armenia initiated personal letters to all of the MPs, some of the relevant ministries, prime minister of the country and the president Serzh Sargsyan. PINK called upon the state officials to monitor direct and indirect cases of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, to ensure the legislative amendments to combat discrimination based on SOGI, thus ensuring equal rights and respect towards LGBT people. The letter addressed to the president urged him not to reward persons and organizations openly demonstrating hate calls with national awards. The letter addressed to the MPs pointed out not to use the chair of the National Assembly as a platform for hate speech. The letters stated that the Government is also expected to adopt and implement the recommendations of UPR on regards to prohibiting and preventing discrimination based on SOGI.

PINK also gifted state officials informational booklets about homophobia and postcards with personal stories of LGBT persons who were subjected to violence and discrimination.

On May 17 PINK activists raised the LGBT flag in the very heart of Yerevan, which caused hysteria among the homophobic society and hate calls and threats towards the activists.

To conclude the day, IDAHOT was celebrated in a closed venue attended by more than 120 LGBT people and allies. Rarely in Armenia does the LGBT community have a safe and secure platform to express themselves openly, yet IDAHOT was celebrated in an easy and free environment.

Follow up of PACE announcement: Authorization of State-sponsored homophobia

Petra DeSutter, Belgian delegate at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has initiated an announcement, which has been signed by 22 delegates regarding the case of 16 citizens against Iravunk newspaper. Hayk Babukhanyan, the president of the editorial board of Iravunk, member of Armenia's Republican Party Faction of the National Assembly, in his turn, stated that he expects PACE delegates to apologize and leave Iravunk newspaper alone.

On this occasion PINK Armenia has sent letters to various commissions of National Assembly, as well as to the MPs of the Republican Party to find the steps for the follow up of PACE recommendations.

Serzh Sargsyan awarded the
leader of homophobic newspaper

On March 2 we received responses from The Republican Party Faction (secretary) and Standing Committee on Protection of Human Rights and Public Affairs. The letter of Standing Committee on Protection of Human Rights and Public Affairs stated that the matter raised by PINK Armenia was not subjected to discussion.

The response from The Republican Faction said that Hermine Naghdalyan (the head of the Armenian delegation to the PACE, Republican Party) had made a statement on regards to the article by Iravunk, and regarding the announcement made by 22 PACE delegates – MP Hayk Babukhanyan issued an open letter where he explained the situation and demanded an apology from 22 delegates. Together with the letter, the open letter of Babukhanyan and 2 editions of Iravunk newspaper were attached. As a further matter, some articles regarding the case were highlighted, entitled “Naghdalyan left homosexual lobbyists empty-handed”, “Coordinated attack from Strasburg [to Berdzor]”, etc. Is it needless to mention “Iravunk” is published under the state support?

The Court of Appeal decision on the case against “Iravunk”

Photo by LGBTnews.am

On February 20, the Civil Court of Appeal reviewed the claim of 16 citizens’ case against “Iravunk” newspaper. The judge ignored the motion to present additional facts to the case (Information Disputes Council found that the expressions and calls for action voiced in the article were displays of extremism and hate speech and written declaration of PACE delegate Petra DeSutter signed by 22 delegates) and on March 5 it rejected 16 citizen`s claim against “Iravunk”, according to which the editor of “Iravunk” newspaper Hovhannes Galajyan’s article titled “They serve the interests of international homosexual lobbying: the blacklist of country’s and nation’s enemies” offended the honor and dignity of the plaintiffs.

According to the Court Decision no offensive remarks were used in the article and it corresponds to the principles of freedom of speech. The verdict obliged the plaintiffs to compensate 50,000 AMD in favor of each respondent party: “Iravunk Media” LTD and Hovhannes Galajyan.

It should be recalled that Judge Nakhshun Tavaratsyan basically revealed in one question that the court has already decided the verdict of the Iravunk case during the trial;
“Does Conchita [Wurst] know that you are defending her this much?”

Homophobia and hate speech is supported by high level officials

Today the court rejected the case of 16 individuals against Iravunk newspaper. Earlier the Armenian newspaper Iravunk published a ‘blacklist’ of Armenians connected to the LGBT community that it claimed to be enemies of the nation.

Few days ago this homophobic paper’s founding editor and two other workers received Medal of Honor from the president of RA. The president of National Assembly of RA also congratulated the founding editor of the newspaper, who is a MP and a member of Republican Fraction as well.

We believe that high level support of official reflected on the decision of the Court and this shows once more that hate speech and homophobia is highly supported by the high level officials of Armenia, and this creates atmosphere of impunity, gives floor for hate crime and fascism in the country.

"Virulent" homophobic attacks put South Caucasus activists at risk

Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan must do more to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people, Amnesty International said after a spate of attacks on activists.

Instead of condemning a firebomb attack on a gay-friendly bar in downtown Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, last week, some public officials went on the record making homophobic remarks and condoning violence against LGBTI people.

Meanwhile, on Thursday in neighbouring Georgia, police in the capital Tbilisi did little to prevent an Orthodox Christian group from obstructing a peaceful march by an LGBTI organization to mark the International Day against Homophobia.

“The virulent nature of these recent attacks shows the need for a public dialogue to tackle homophobia throughout the South Caucasus to protect LGBTI people from discrimination,” said John Dalhuisen, Europe and Central Asia Programme Director at Amnesty International.

Yerevan firebomb

On 8 May, self-described “fascists” were caught on tape by a security camera as they threw Molotov cocktails through the windows of a gay-friendly bar in downtown Yerevan.

Police reportedly arrived at the scene 12 hours later to investigate the arson attack.

Two young men were arrested as part of the investigation, but were bailed shortly afterwards by two opposition parliamentarians from the nationalist Armenian Revolutionary Federation - Dashnaktsutyun party (ARF), who condoned the attack, saying it was in line with "the context of societal and national ideology”.

ARF leaders have distanced themselves from the bailout, saying that the parliamentarians acted in their personal capacity, but they have fallen short of publicly calling on their colleagues to apologize for supporting the alleged hate crime.

Eduard Sharmazanov, spokesperson for Armenia’s ruling Republican Party and Parliament Vice Speaker told Hayots Ashkharh newspaper Thursday that, “As an Armenian citizen and member of [the ruling] national-conservative party, I find the rebellion of the two young Armenian people against the homosexuals … completely right and justified…Those human rights defenders, who are trying to earn cheap dividends from this incident, I urge them first and foremost to protect the national and universal values.”

Amnesty International believes this type of official discourse is dangerous, fuels discrimination and undermines the role of human rights defenders.

“The official response to the firebombing in Yerevan is utterly shocking – protecting the human rights of LGBTI people is not a concession, but an obligation under international law that Armenia is a party to,” said Dalhuisen.

Homophobia and Transphobia in Tbilisi

On Thursday, a peaceful march in central Tbilisi marking the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia came under attack when a group of Orthodox Christians and members of the “Orthodox Parents’ Union” began insulting and threatening protesters from IDENTOBA, a Georgian LGBTI rights organization.

Orthodox priests were among the counter-demonstrators, who prevented the marchers from continuing to the Georgian Parliament, shouting abuse and throwing punches at the peaceful protesters. Fighting reportedly broke out as the counter-demonstrators attacked marchers, tearing up placards.

A video of the incident shows police intervening once a scuffle broke out between the two groups. Five people were detained – including three of the IDENTOBA protesters – and were released shortly afterwards.

“A hallmark of a tolerant society is allowing peaceful protests to proceed and stopping discrimination in its tracks,” said Dalhuisen.

Public authorities must respect the freedom of expression of all groups without discrimination. This extends to protecting peaceful demonstrators from violent attacks.

“Police in Tbilisi failed to prevent homophobic and transphobic violence from marring the International Day against Homophobia march – they must now investigate what went wrong and implement measures to improve their policing of peaceful demonstrations in future,” Dalhuisen added.

Concerns in Baku ahead of Eurovision

LGBTI groups in the neighbouring South Caucasus country of Azerbaijan have also raised concerns about the safety of LGBTI participants in the upcoming Eurovision song contest, which will take place in the capital Baku from 22-26 May.

Azerbaijan decriminalized same-sex relations in 2001, but has so far failed to enact laws that specifically ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and provide effective protection to LGBTI people. Homophobia and transphobia remain rife and little progress has been made to change public attitudes and the discriminatory practices against LGBTI people.

Report: LGBT rights situation in Armenia 2011

LGBT rights violation can be witnessed in various spheres of social life. LGBT people state that there is discrimination toward them in educational institutions and there were cases when a person was bullied by a teacher because of being feminine (in case of a male person) or masculine (in case of a female person), forced to drop out from the university because of his/her sexual orientation. Scientific papers and work on this issue is not welcomed, because the stance of the lecturers is that it is a perversion and the person is perverted if he/she wants to work on this topic. A gay student was not allowed to write a paper about homosexuality as the lecturer stated that he can’t be objective taking into account his sexual orientation.

Employment remains one of the most problematic aspects of life for LGBT people as employers refuse to hire someone who is open about his/her sexual orientation or his either feminine (gay) or masculine (lesbian). Transgender people have no opportunity to be open about their gender identity and there is no relevant legislation which will allow transsexual persons to change sex. Quite often LGBT people refuse to visit healthcare institutions in case of a necessity being not sure about the confidentiality there. If they contact civil society organizations they are being referred to LGBT friendly doctors, otherwise there is a high risk that person will be discriminated and will receive degrading attitude.

Army remains one of the most challenging institutions due to its closed nature and non-written rules which exist there and lead to discriminative and violent approach toward this group of people. In most of the cases media approach toward LGBT people is biased and based on stereotypes, prejudice and has no scientific and contemporary approach. There is no political willingness from the side of government institutions to protect LGBT rights and quite often they appear in the position of violators.

The stance of civil society toward LGBT rights is not united as well. Despite the fact that civil society organizations are able to work in the sphere of LGBT rights protection and take actions for changes, there is no support from the government and public and some part of civil society.

Although there are no radical changes in the above mentioned aspects, in this report we will focus on several aspects of social life and will present most common issues and problems of LGBT community in the Republic of Armenia which were registered in the past 2011.

Read more about the attitude of society, media, church, police and achievments in 2011 in our official website

Schools must stop spreading homophobic and transphobic messages

The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg, has published a viewpoint on homophobic and transphobic bullying.

In schools across Europe young persons are being harassed because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Homophobic and transphobic bullying is an every day reality in the lives of many. It is time to react – especially in view of several national studies and reports warning that there have been a number of suicides among young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons feeling rejected by their peers and families.

The scope of this problem appears to be large. A study in the United Kingdom showed that nine in ten secondary school teachers had witnessed children being subjected to homophobic bullying in their schools. Among primary school teachers two in five had made similar observations regarding children at this very early stage.

Such studies have also demonstrated that children in primary schools use homophobic remarks alarmingly often. They pick up and repeat negative jargon, most often without even understanding what the words refer to.

My recent report “Discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity in Europe” contains numerous examples of how factually wrong information about LGBT persons is disseminated – sometimes also by schools themselves. This is a serious problem and may contribute to bullying and to cementing homophobic and transphobic attitudes.

School books used to spread prejudices

The World Health Organization removed homosexuality from the International Classification of Diseases in 1990. Despite this, prejudices and misunderstandings have too often lived on in teaching programmes.
Only this past summer was a decision taken in “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” to revise a school textbook describing homosexuals as “neurotic and psychotic persons” with an “abnormal, unnatural and degenerated sexual life”. From Lithuania I have received information that children have been taught that homosexuality is a sickness and that same-sex relationships destroy families.

In 2009 the European Committee of Social Rights set an important standard in its review of a complaint against Croatia regarding the content of a school biology textbook which was held to contain prejudiced information. The Committee found that “Certain educational materials which are used in the regular teaching programme are biased, discriminatory and degrading.” Croatia withdrew the textbook as a result of the Committee’s findings, though NGOs in the country still report similar problems with other textbooks.

“Don’t stand for homophobic bullying”

Some member states have taken encouraging initiatives. A national action plan in Norway targets schools at both primary and secondary level and has added an LGBT dimension to subjects in the mainstream curriculum. In Estonia the national study curriculum provides a basis for discussions on LGB issues. UNESCO is initiating an international consultation on homophobic bullying in educational institutions. NGOs conduct indispensable anti-homophobic bullying campaigns such as the Irish ‘Don’t stand for homophobic bullying’ initiative.

There is a strong need to review curricula and teaching materials in all member states of the Council of Europe. This was also emphasised in a Council of Europe Committee of Ministers Recommendation which called on member states to provide “pupils and students with the necessary information, protection and support to enable them to live in accordance with their sexual orientation and gender identity.”

Schools obliged to protect students

It is an obligation for all schools to protect their students from bullying and to teach respect and openness. School personnel need thorough training concerning non-discrimination issues. One important tool in this regard could be the Council of Europe training pack on violence reduction in schools.
Policy makers and school management need to give strong support to teachers in order for them to have the means and resources to create a healthy and inclusive environment in schools and classrooms.

Thomas Hammarberg

Homophobic and transphobic violence must be stopped

A few weeks ago, a peaceful Pride demonstration in Split, Croatia, was brutally attacked by thousands of hooligans, wounding over a dozen people. The counter-demonstrators by far outnumbered the police officers and Pride participants. The police did not fully succeed in protecting the demonstrators, who simply wanted to raise awareness about the situation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons. These events unfolded after weeks of hate speech, threats, graffiti, flyers and social media inciting to hatred.

This is not the first time a manifestation against homophobia and transphobia has suffered assaults and threats from extremists.

In 2010 in Belgrade, Serbia, the police made heroic efforts to protect the first ever Belgrade Pride, but around 150 persons were injured during the confrontations, most of them police officers. Again, the counter-demonstrators outnumbered by far those marching in favour of LGBT rights.

In Vilnius, Lithuania, in 2010, the authorities had to mobilise a large police contingent to shield the Baltic Pride March from violent attackers.

There is a growing awareness among local authorities that peaceful Pride events must be allowed and protected; LGBT persons have the same rights as others to freedom of assembly and expression. This acknowledgement is of course positive.

The continued need for massive police protection however is very negative. It is high time for European politicians to seriously tackle the phenomena of homophobia and transphobia and their root causes. The first step is to recognise that the problem is serious and that systematic action is needed to promote awareness on all levels in society. Then there is an urgent need to counter all tendencies of discrimination against this group of people - also in official human rights and equality policies.

In the past five years I have monitored the implementation of human rights for LGBT persons in the 47 member states of the Council of Europe. The result was recently published in a report: “Discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity in Europe”.

The report lists a number of obstacles to the full enjoyment of their universal human rights. It shows, for example, that homophobic and transphobic harassment in the workplace and bullying of LGBT persons in schools is common in practically all member states. The official registration of LGBT organisations was obstructed or refused in five countries in Europe, and attempts to criminalise “propaganda or promotion of homosexuality” were identified in three member states.

There has been little response to national studies and reports which flag that a disproportionate number of young LGBT persons see no other way out than committing suicide due to the non acceptance of their sexual orientation or gender identity by their peers and families. Very few countries recognise homophobic or transphobic violence in their hate crime legislation.

Transgender persons face particularly severe human rights problems in almost all areas of life. If they want their preferred gender to be legally recognised, in 29 member states they face a legal requirement to undergo gender reassignment surgery, leading to infertility. Some 15 member states even require the transgender person to be unmarried in order to obtain recognition, which entails mandatory divorce if the person is already married.

Too often politicians and policy makers ignore the human rights of LGBT persons when designing policies or drafting legislation. There are disturbing examples of debates in national parliaments which are characterised by a high level of prejudice, bias and outdated information, including claims that homosexuality is an illness

Governments need to pursue legislative reforms and social change to enable LGBT persons to fully enjoy universally recognised human rights. National and international monitoring, including by Equality Bodies and Ombudsman Offices, is needed to measure progress.

Change is only possible if European countries show more genuine political will to address this problem with much more determination than has so far been demonstrated.

Thomas Hammarberg

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights

Rainbow Flash in Yerevan

This year PINK Armenia joined the international RainbowFlash event to celebrate the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO).

On May 17, 2010, we organized rainbow flashmob with balloons in the center of Yerevan with the support of our friends and partner organizations.

Colorful balloons flied in the sky as a symbolic move to combat hate, ignorance and intolerance, to combat homophobia and transphobia.

Watch the video