Attack on blogger driv Uzbek gay muny unrground | Rters

Contents:

• GAY LIFE UZBEKISTAN
• GAY COUPLE UZBEKISTAN - UZBEKISTAN FOM
• GAY UZBEKISTAN TODAY
• UZBEK GAY LIFE--AN INTERVIEW WH MAXIM
• 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. It is an amazg thg to claim when there has been a wave of arrts of gay Uzbeks recent months.

GAY COUPLE UZBEKISTAN - UZBEKISTAN FOM

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.

LGBTQ+ rights mt ntue to be on the for those who survive growg up gay Uzbekistan, the effects are lastg.

Uzbekistan – along wh Turkmenistan – are the only post-Soviet stat that prohib sexual relatns between vlence epted Tashkent, Uzbekistan’s pal, last weekend after heated social media bate around lls to reform the penal on homosexualy.

GAY UZBEKISTAN TODAY

The days, many of are stayg home out of fear, ” said Shhrat – not his real name – a 20-year-old gay man. Covid-19 has exposed the equali and agili of health and polil systems and allowed thorarian regim to impose drastic curbs on rights and eedoms, g the vis as a pretext for rtrictg ee speech and stiflg and Freedom is a new Guardian reportg seri to vtigate and expose human rights ab at this cril time, and elevate the voic of people on the ontl, fightg back for themselv and their Print Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the past four years have seen Uzbekistan move towards a more polilly progrsive agenda, yet this has not extend to the untry’s LGBTQ+ ernment has recently proposed to amend the untry’s crimal to change the charge agast homosexualy om “sodomy” to a crime agast fay, moraly and children.

“LGBT people Uzbekistan were already vulnerable to harassment, threats, abe and vlence, even before the events on Sunday, given the crimalisatn of nsensual same-sex nduct and wispread homophobia, ” said Mihra Rtmann, senr central Asia rearcher at Human Rights Watch.

UZBEK GAY LIFE--AN INTERVIEW WH MAXIM

It will be a long time before “Gay Life Uzbekistan” and human rights take their rightful place natnal polici Uzbekistan. The lg dictatorship Uzbekistan has jailed Maxim Popov, a 28-year-old psychologist and AIDS activist the pal of Tashkent, for seven years for promotg homosexualy and th rptg mors through his HIV-preventn work. Agence France-Prs reported a dispatch: “Authori have long been spic that foreign aid anizatns have been tryg to spread homosexualy and dg e, said an activist who also requted anonymy.

Consensual homosexualy between two men is a crime Uzbekistan punishable by three years prison. Crimal charg of homosexualy have been ed the past to silence cril journalists and human rights fenrs.

ATTACK ON BLOGGER DRIV UZBEK GAY MUNY UNRGROUND

” Khamidov’s broadsts on a private rad statn regularly alt wh such forbidn issu as homosexualy, prostutn, and rptn, mostly through his poems. A short-lived newspaper that Khamidov found and ran, Odamlar Orasida (Among the People), which achieved a circulatn of 24, 000 only five months of publitn, discsed the same issu, cludg homosexualy, and was closed 2007 by thori, acrdg to a report earlier this year on the webse of Rad Free Europe/ Rad Liberty.

There is an obscure reference the RFE/ RL report to the charg agast Khamidov beg related to his “personal life, ” and some ments by Uzbeks on var other webs suggt that the “banned group” referred to by thori the charg agast Khamidov was the homosexual muny.

Bee homosexualy is illegal, Uzbek police not only regularly harass gays but also subject them to extortn by tag them and threateng them wh prosecutn, acrdg to an article Cha Daily. Homophobic hate crim are often perpetrated agast those rare Uzbeks who dare to raise the issue of homosexualy public.