UZBEKISTAN Gay Uzbeks risk beg expelled om their untry

Contents:

• GAY LIFE UZBEKISTAN
• UZBEKISTAN: GAY MEN FACE ABE, PRISON
• GAY UZBEKS RISK BEG EXPELLED OM THEIR UNTRY
• GAY AFGHANISTAN: HOMOEROTICISM AMONG KABUL'S WARRRS
• ATTACK ON BLOGGER DRIV UZBEK GAY MUNY UNRGROUND

GAY LIFE UZBEKISTAN

But Uzbekistan, where homosexualy is a crime, was brave and darg, phg the l of how gay people Uzbekistan n live and mandg the sort of digny he knew that gay people had elsewhere. In a untry where the police e fake profil on social media to lure gay men to apartments and then make them choose between payg up or facg three years prison, how n they?

This is the realy Uzbekistan, where I, like Shokir, was born; 's one of only two post-Soviet stat that still crimalize homosexualy. There, a gay rdlogist named Kasymberdy Garayev, who me out onle like Shokir, disappeared recently after beg summoned to a police statn for my home untry, there is hope for change.

Jt days before Shokir went to a gay club Tashkent for the last time, police arrted 10 gay men who had gathered at the bar. There are vigilante groups that target gay men and force them to film huiatg vios, like this one showg a man forced to sert a glass bottle to his rectum. " I was only 12, but I stopped dancg and playg mic, aaid of what would happen if I me and for many others, the close-kn nature of Uzbek fai that n make the untry so warm and supportive mak the culture suffotg when you are gay.

UZBEKISTAN: GAY MEN FACE ABE, PRISON

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?

GAY UZBEKS RISK BEG EXPELLED OM THEIR UNTRY

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.

GAY AFGHANISTAN: HOMOEROTICISM AMONG KABUL'S WARRRS

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.

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.

ATTACK ON BLOGGER DRIV UZBEK GAY MUNY UNRGROUND

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.

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).

Human rights groups have renewed lls for Uzbekistan to crimalize homosexualy, sayg is imperative for the Central Asian untry to make progrs toward honorg s ternatnal human rights mments. Uzbekistan, a Mlim-majory natn of some 34 ln people, is the only former Soviet untry that hasn’t removed a Soviet-era law crimalizg homosexualy. Lbians, gays, bisexual, and transgenr people (LGBT) Uzbekistan are at nstant risk of ser human rights vlatns whout any possible reurse to jtice, says a new report released by the Associatn for Human Rights Central Asia (AHRCA), the Eurasian Coaln on Health, Rights, Genr, and Sexual Diversy (ECOM), and the Internatnal Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR).