Murr In Tashkent: Killg Of Gay Man Spotlights Plight Of Uzbek LGBT Communy

Contents:

• MURR IN TASHKENT: KILLG OF GAY MAN SPOTLIGHTS PLIGHT OF UZBEK LGBT COMMUNY
• GAY UZBEKISTAN TODAY
• GAY LIFE UZBEKISTAN
• EXPLORE GAY ROOMS & RENTALS TASHKENT
• L’UZBEKISTAN è UN PAE GAY IENDLY?
• ATTACK ON BLOGGER DRIV UZBEK GAY MUNY UNRGROUND

MURR IN TASHKENT: KILLG OF GAY MAN SPOTLIGHTS PLIGHT OF UZBEK LGBT COMMUNY

But the urse of nversatns and terviews ’s bee obv that this crimalisatn is wily ed to blackmail and threaten om prosecutn for their sexual orientatn, gay Uzbek men experience daily harassment om the public at large. The three stori show that spe danger and antagonism towards them, lbians and gay men Uzbekistan are no longer willg to “remake themselv”, as one person scribed . I once told everyone at work about : lleagu asked what I thought about gays and I said: “Well, what n I thk about gays when I’m one myself?

But I wouldn’t want to lk this to my sexual orientatn: I’m agree that people might not want to talk to me if I’m gay. If someone don’t unrstand what beg gay means, or they only know the stereotyp, I try to expla that we don’t choose our orientatn and that we n’t change .

We don’t have a separate subculture: you don’t ever fd people meetg up wh iends, bumpg to other gays and hangg out wh people jt bee they’re also gay. It’s also tertg that I’ve enuntered much more homophobia Mosw than Tashkent – I’ve never been lled a “paedo” here or been threatened, whereas Mosw ’s happened que often. As soon as I accepted myself I stopped beg aaid of other people, avoidg them or disguisg my gayns, although I never advertised or tried to show off.

GAY UZBEKISTAN TODAY

But, on the other hand, I don’t want to overdo and sre people to thkg that gays have a really hard time our untry. Gay men Tashkent generally e social works to make ntact wh one another, but they all e nam and hi their inti, out of fear. His whole extend fay followed his social media posts and they were hysterics about his homosexualy, and he eventually closed his acunt and left Uzbekistan bee he was tired of all.

As for awarens raisg, I feel the need to expla homosexualy to people dividually, bee is not the same as paedophilia. But people this untry have no tert what homosexualy is and why there’s no such thg as homosexual propaganda – no one unrstands that if you’re not born a homosexual, you’re not gog to turn to one jt by gog on a uple of Gay paras.

And sex tn general is a disaster this untry – children don’t know where they e om, what “hetero-“ and “gay” mean and so girliend and I are thkg about how to fill this gap: how we n n a urse to expla the basic thgs to people. And if gay people won’t nfs, they beat them and torture them to the pot where they will start prayg for mercy and do everythg they ask. I uld go reason they don’t want to repeal the article is, I thk, bee the powers that be are homophob - they have a distorted ia of and believe that we prent a threat to our untry.

GAY LIFE UZBEKISTAN

Islam preach that there n be no mercy for homosexuals, only ath, and that by stong or beg thrown om the top of a high buildg.

Killg a homosexual brgs a promise of Paradise, as a good ed and reward (both a spirual one after ath and a material one life). The btal killg of a 25-year-old gay man Uzbekistan's pal, Tashkent, last week has raised ncerns wh the lol lbian and gay muny, which has been largely ostracized the predomantly Mlim Central Asian untry. The body of Shokir Shavkatov was found an apartment Tashkent on September 12, jt days after he "me out" as gay an Instagram post.

"This barbaric killg shows obv signs of homophobia, " one lol activist for lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr (LGBT) rights told RFE/RL's Uzbek Service. One of his iends claimed that shortly before the attack, Shavkatov was seen a Tashkent nightclub popular wh members of the gay muny.

EXPLORE GAY ROOMS & RENTALS TASHKENT

The activist said the police had raid the same nightclub on September 10 -- a day before the attack -- and took away some 10 homosexuals. The vio appeal me after police reportedly arrted two gay men unr the sodomy law Tashkent's Chilonzor district July.

People who digrs om the signated norm are viewed wh spicn, srn or as illegimate such as gypsi, polil opponents, human rights activists, foreign NGOs and of urse homosexuals, which both untri crimalize (the only natns the World Health Organizatn’s Europe Regn to do so). What a visor will not see Uzbekistan is a gay muny bee same-sex activy if disvered is punishable wh a prison sentence. They mean bs here sce this is sentially a police state wh zero tolerance for phg back agast polil supprsn or tntg the thori wh a flash mob rally for gay rights.

Dpe ocsnal sry headl of “arrts and ab of cizens by the police for havg an timate relatnship wh another man”, there is no active wch hunt for gays the bars, clubs, sports venu or universi. There is no gay scene here as people live paranoid fear of police tsn to their personal liv if they step out of le and e any social or polil ffle. Beg gay is illegal but the much greater hibg force is brgg shame and dishonor to one’s fay, which n be a lot of people sce tradnally there were five to twelve children born of one uple.

L’UZBEKISTAN è UN PAE GAY IENDLY?

Dpe several efforts to fd a live LGBT person UZB I did not enunter a sgle one–at least as far as I uld tell; gays are not readily visible.

However, there was a well-known and rpected actor and director the Ilkhom Theatre who is openly gay but, as I found out after arrivg Tashkent, he moved to New York where he liv today, provg the pot that beg a succsful LGBT Uzbek means emigratg to another untry. One day, durg a pleasant vis to a landmark shre to the ancient ler Bobur a park named after him I asked her ( private) if I uld pose a personal qutn: how would she and her parents react if someone her fay, for example her brother or sister, told them he or she were gay? She spoke lmly and wh assurance, whout annoyance, that this was the rrect Mlim thg to do agast a gay person; they have no place this culture.

ATTACK ON BLOGGER DRIV UZBEK GAY MUNY UNRGROUND

Many gay men are married the world–ed most gay men– orr to be accepted society and fay and avoid the son and curse of homosexualy. (A young Mlim gay man om Yemen recently told me the same thg; he will marry orr not to lose this fay or his untry. He was not surprised when I asked him about the gay brother or sister issue to which he replied, “ pends on which culture the fay is om: Orthodox or Mlim–Christian Rsian or Mlim Uzbeki.

More likely there would be ser upset and the gay person would be stigmatized and perhaps asked to live somewhere else, or not. The Rsian anti-gay propaganda law that passed Mosw last year which crimaliz LGBT people if they try to advote or promote gay rights public was damagg for LGBT people. The fluence of that pernic law has spread over wi regns of the Rsian far east and throughout Central Asia, om Vladivostok to Ukrae wh a signifint crease homophobic vlence, phg LGBTs further back to the closet.

A Rsian-Uzbek fay would certaly feel the overt or subtle impact of that law and very likely strengthen the dismay and anger toward a gay son or dghter. “There is much hostily Uzbekistan toward LGBT people, first bee is a crimal offense (although the law is rarely enforce, he thought) but mostly bee people are irratnally relig–whether church-goers or not–and aaid (read, ignorant) of homosexualy. For gays they live fear they might be found out and brg a “horrifyg dishonor” to their fay not to mentn shamg judgment om neighbors and extend fay.