Gay Rsian Mlim-Majory Chechnya: 'I Had No Choice But Lie or Die'

Contents:

• GAYS FEAR NEW LAW WILL DRIVE THEM OUT OF KYRGYZSTAN
• GAY RSIAN MLIM-MAJORY CHECHNYA: ‘I HAD NO CHOICE BUT LIE OR DIE’

GAYS FEAR NEW LAW WILL DRIVE THEM OUT OF KYRGYZSTAN

BISHKEK (Rters) - A draft law banng “homosexual propaganda” Kyrgyzstan uld be the last straw for the Central Asian untry’s ightened gay are thkg of leavg the maly Mlim state borrg Cha if the law is passed by parliament, mirrorg a move last year by Rsia that outraged the Wt and was seen by crics as part of a broar crackdown on civil by Mlim clerics who say homosexuals are “psychologilly ill” and should be cured, the law follows what gays say is growg timidatn, police abe and law would impose a one-year jail term for “formg a posive attu to untradnal sexual relatns” among mors or the media.

However, the draft do not clarify exactly what would ntravene the legislatn relatg to mors or what the media may not publish, leadg crics to say that s current shape the law is vague and leav a lot of room for terpretatn and abe by law’s backers have ma clear they expect to go much further than the protectn of mors or curbs on the media, and they predict a crackdown on a wi spectm of activi, such as gay ralli, clubs and law has already won ial approval the first of three readgs parliament and will require Print Almazbek Atambayev’s signature to bee law, which is expected to happen due urse given ep-rooted homophobia Kyrgyzstan. “If this draft law, which is still beg bated, is fally adopted, I will be forced to leave the untry, along wh the others (gays), ” a smartly drsed 23-year-old man told Rters, givg his name only as Sultan for fear of retributn. “The entire atmosphere is gettg more threateng, ” he said, reuntg how he and a small group of iends were beaten up by waers a bar when they realized they were spoke a small hoe hidn a maze of crooked alleyways on the edge of the Kyrgyz pal, Bishkek, one of a handful of safe meetg plac for the lol LGBT (lbian, gay, bisexual and trans-genr) muny.

Bishkek, a cy of 1 ln people, has only one gay club - wh bouncers on guard for homophobic said gangs Bishkek had started to “hunt” for members of the LGBT muny, sometim beiendg them on social media s, arrangg a meetg and then beatg their victims or threateng them before extortg Augt, one such group kidnapped a gay man and drove him to the untrysi where they told him to dig a grave for himself before beatg him up, Sultan said. Kyrgyzstan would, however, be the first of them to ban “gay propaganda” among mors.

GAY RSIAN MLIM-MAJORY CHECHNYA: ‘I HAD NO CHOICE BUT LIE OR DIE’

Backers say the law will protect tradnal valu, siar reasong given by Rsian lawmakers whose “anti-gay” law prompted some Wtern lears to boytt the Wter Olympics hosted by Print Vladimir Put Sochi. “And om now on, there will be no possibily to arrange gay clubs, gay f or to hold gay ralli. ”The next readg uld be held as early as this Hajji Toktomhev, Kyrgyzstan’s grand mufti, said there should be no discsn of gay issu.

Atambayev has given up some of his precsor’s wi powers and has general shown a reads to promise wh the opposn to prerve a agile peace, but has not dited whether or not he will sign the Rtmann, a Central Asia rearcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), lled the law “discrimatg, homophobic and reprsive”. “If is adopted, this uld have negative nsequenc for the margalized LGBT muny Kyrgyzstan, ” she a report based on terviews wh 40 gay and bisexual men Kyrgyzstan, HRW listed allegatns of police vlence which said stemmed om “pervasive homophobia” the untry. “There are no registered facts of them (gays) beg beaten or tortured.

”SOCIAL PRESSUREHuman rights groups say prsure is fierce for men Kyrgyzstan to nform to stereotypil male appearanc, marry women and have ’s mother was shocked when he told her he was gay and she took him to see mullahs, prits, psychologists and psychiatrists. Echog rights activists’ ncerns about the siar Rsian law, some crics say the legislatn uld be ed to muzzle anyone who speaks openly about gay rights cludg journalists, civil society activists and human rights groups. Gay men are reportedly fleeg what they scribe as a btal and adly mpaign agast them by thori the Mlim-majory Republic of Chechnya, an tonomo provce Rsia.

The Agence France-Prse (AFP) report on gays pg persecutn Chechnya after the Mosw-based newspaper Novaya Gazeta and LGBT activists revealed this month that “more than 100 men” nfirmed or spected of beg homosexual had been sent to prison mps the tonomo provce where they were beg tortured and killed. Chechen Print Ramzan Kadyrov, a key ally of Rsian strongman Vladimir Put, allegedly orred the crackdown on homosexuals. The Kadyrov admistratn has nied the claims sayg, “You nnot arrt or reprs [gay] people who jt don’t exist the republic.

Neverthels, AFP spoke to several victims who managed to pe the allegedly btal mpaign agast gays the Rsian North Cc regn’s Chechnya. After beg beaten and tortured by men ary uniform Rsia’s Chechnya regn, he fled to Mosw but still fears for his life — bee he is gay.