A 24-year-old gay man Ashgabat spoke to RFE/RL about his stggl livg a untry where homosexualy is a crimal offense and wily nmned by society.
Contents:
GLOBALGAYZ: THE BOOK
* gay turkmen *
Only a few people his close fay circle are aware of Ka's real stggle: He is secretly gay.
TURKMEN CELEBRY ARRTED ON SPICN OF BEG GAY
Summary Officially nonexistent and a taboo topic, Turkmenistan's gay populatn is fdg partners wh greater equency. Men will first meet public * gay turkmen *
In Turkmenistan, where homosexualy is a crime and shunned by the Central Asian untry's nservative society, beg gay means havg to choose between livg a lie or facg up to two years prison and a lifetime of disgrace. "I have known sce my childhood that I am gay, but was difficult for me to accept , " Ka said. He said was that thorarian-led untry where he fally "tasted eedom" about his sexual orientatn and "began to accept" his homosexualy.
His onle "lover" turned out to be a policeman whose job was to lure gay men onle and brg them to "jtice. Turkmenistan hasn't dropped a Soviet-era law that crimaliz homosexualy.
Along wh Uzbekistan, they are the only two untri among the 15 former Soviet republics that nsir beg gay a crime. There are several reports of gay men Turkmenistan beg subjected to physil and verbal abe both by police and fellow cizens. "At home that eveng, my father shouted at me that would have been better for him to take me somewhere and kill me than havg a gay son, " Ka said.