Gay Life Uzbekistan

Contents:

• GAY UZBEKISTAN TODAY
• GAY LIFE UZBEKISTAN
• GAY AND GAY-IENDLY HOTELS TASHKENT
• UZBEK GAY LIFE--AN INTERVIEW WH MAXIM
• UZBEKISTAN: GAY MEN FACE ABE, PRISON
• ATTACK ON BLOGGER DRIV UZBEK GAY MUNY UNRGROUND
• GAY COUPLE UZBEKISTAN - UZBEKISTAN FOM
• 'ALL OF WILL BE VICTIMS AT SOME POT': WHY BISHKEK'S ONLY GAY CLUB CLOSED

GAY UZBEKISTAN TODAY

People who digrs om the signated norm are viewed wh spicn, srn or as illegimate such as gypsi, polil opponents, human rights activists, foreign NGOs and of urse homosexuals, which both untri crimalize (the only natns the World Health Organizatn’s Europe Regn to do so). They mean bs here sce this is sentially a police state wh zero tolerance for phg back agast polil supprsn or tntg the thori wh a flash mob rally for gay rights.

Dpe ocsnal sry headl of “arrts and ab of cizens by the police for havg an timate relatnship wh another man”, there is no active wch hunt for gays the bars, clubs, sports venu or universi.

There is no gay scene here as people live paranoid fear of police tsn to their personal liv if they step out of le and e any social or polil ffle. Beg gay is illegal but the much greater hibg force is brgg shame and dishonor to one’s fay, which n be a lot of people sce tradnally there were five to twelve children born of one uple. Dpe several efforts to fd a live LGBT person UZB I did not enunter a sgle one–at least as far as I uld tell; gays are not readily visible.

GAY LIFE UZBEKISTAN

However, there was a well-known and rpected actor and director the Ilkhom Theatre who is openly gay but, as I found out after arrivg Tashkent, he moved to New York where he liv today, provg the pot that beg a succsful LGBT Uzbek means emigratg to another untry. One day, durg a pleasant vis to a landmark shre to the ancient ler Bobur a park named after him I asked her ( private) if I uld pose a personal qutn: how would she and her parents react if someone her fay, for example her brother or sister, told them he or she were gay? She spoke lmly and wh assurance, whout annoyance, that this was the rrect Mlim thg to do agast a gay person; they have no place this culture.

He was not surprised when I asked him about the gay brother or sister issue to which he replied, “ pends on which culture the fay is om: Orthodox or Mlim–Christian Rsian or Mlim Uzbeki. The Rsian anti-gay propaganda law that passed Mosw last year which crimaliz LGBT people if they try to advote or promote gay rights public was damagg for LGBT people. The fluence of that pernic law has spread over wi regns of the Rsian far east and throughout Central Asia, om Vladivostok to Ukrae wh a signifint crease homophobic vlence, phg LGBTs further back to the closet.

A Rsian-Uzbek fay would certaly feel the overt or subtle impact of that law and very likely strengthen the dismay and anger toward a gay son or dghter. “There is much hostily Uzbekistan toward LGBT people, first bee is a crimal offense (although the law is rarely enforce, he thought) but mostly bee people are irratnally relig–whether church-goers or not–and aaid (read, ignorant) of homosexualy. For gays they live fear they might be found out and brg a “horrifyg dishonor” to their fay not to mentn shamg judgment om neighbors and extend fay.

GAY AND GAY-IENDLY HOTELS TASHKENT

But even Rsia, foreign rints are now often the target of prejudice and hostily pecially sce the passage of the anti-gay law last year which has whipped up rentment agast ‘others’. Although Uzbekistan’s anti-gay law is rarely enforced s prence creat a shadow of pervasive fear: “the very existence of the law creat a source of e for the Uzbek police and a source of trouble for gay people.

“For a gay se to be referred to the police, there have to be wns of the terurse, or at least wns who saw the two men together an apartment. From the legal standpot, the wns are els, even Uzbekistan where jtice is bld and rpt, but om the pot of view of an Uzbek gay person, is social suici.

And Iskanr’s (the stg victim) se, the policemen had strong leverage, namely, a transcript of the web chat between him and Jakhongir (the fake gay workg wh the police), where the former ndidly wrote what he dreamt of dog wh the latter, and how. Several gay people Tashkent, as well as the aforementned former vtigator, tell that the ‘hunt’ for homosexuals is an old and lucrative source of extra e for the Uzbek police, who eher look for gays at known meetg pots or lure them out via datg webs. Such sentiments are believed to have been part of the homoerotic sub-culture of the Mlim Turkistan (most of today’s Central Asia) and Iran of that time.

UZBEK GAY LIFE--AN INTERVIEW WH MAXIM

But there are not many visible gays to snatch up the days; they are equently onle or g their mobile apps tryg to fd Mr Right or Mr Right-away. So the cycl of life–gay and straight–go on; the heart nnot be stopped by any thorarian ernment bee the will to love is greater than any effort to ntrol or stifle . 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. ” 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.

UZBEKISTAN: GAY MEN FACE ABE, PRISON

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.

ATTACK ON BLOGGER DRIV UZBEK GAY MUNY UNRGROUND

The JTA dispatch reported that acrdg to a lear Tashkent’s Jewish populatn of 30, 000, “many the Jewish muny there believed Vail’s murr was related to ‘Whe Whe Black Stork’ and s homosexual ntent. A Google search revealed only one sentence mentng Popov the New York Tim, which appeared at the tail end of an Associated Prs dispatch on the paper’s webse; accurately stated, “In late Febary, Uzbek activist Maxim Popov, who distributed brochur sayg ndoms and disposable syrg n help prevent HIV, was nvicted of rptg mors by promotg homosexualy, prostutn, and dg e. The London-based Gay Tim onle magaze stat that Uzbekistan is a “eply homophobic” untry and that the rights of gay and lbian Uzbeks are “poorly rpected”.

GAY COUPLE UZBEKISTAN - UZBEKISTAN FOM

Acrdg to a 24 July 2003 Cha Daily article, gay Uzbek men terviewed by the newspaper dited that homosexuals Uzbekistan regularly experience police “harassment” and that gay tablishments are “forced to close or [are] heavily monored by police. ” The men further noted that homosexuals are also subject to extortn by the police, who “routely” ta them and “threaten them wh prosecutn.

A January 2006 World Organisatn agast Torture (Organisatn mondiale ntre la torture, OMCT) report on human rights vlatns Uzbekistan stat that “athough the crime of homosexualy]has a very high level of latency, law-enforcement bodi n e the charge some fabrited s to huiate the acced or to blackmail homosexuals” In 2003, followg a trial that Amnty Internatnal (AI) scrib as “unfair, ” Uzbek journalist and human rights fenr Surlan Sharipov was charged wh homosexualy and sexual relatns wh a mor and sentenced to five and half years jail. Acrdg to Gay Tim, there is “no gay scene as such” Uzbekistan; however, 1993, a gay rights group was tablished and, 2000, a “gay muny” web se was created. Informatn on legal reurse and protectn available to homosexuals who have been subject to ill-treatment uld not be found among the sourc nsulted by the Rearch Directorate wh the time nstrats of this Rponse.

I never actually discsed homosexualy wh Uzbek iends, but I did learn about their views om passg ments and nversatns between my host fai and iends.

'ALL OF WILL BE VICTIMS AT SOME POT': WHY BISHKEK'S ONLY GAY CLUB CLOSED

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?

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. 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.