Summary Officially nonexistent and a taboo topic, Turkmenistan's gay populatn is fdg partners wh greater equency. Men will first meet public
Contents:
GLOBALGAYZ: THE BOOK
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. * gay turkmen *
Only a few people his close fay circle are aware of Ka's real stggle: He is secretly gay. 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.
TURKMEN CELEBRY ARRTED ON SPICN OF BEG GAY
* gay turkmen *
"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. A pixelated image of "Ka, " a gay rdlogist Turkmenistan who spoke to RFE/RL on ndn of anonymy. The fay took Ka to a mullah to "cure" his homosexualy wh relig prayers and forced him to seek unselg om psychologists to help him e to his "sens.