Attack on blogger driv Uzbek gay muny unrground | Rters

Contents:

• GAY LIFE UZBEKISTAN
• UZBEKISTAN: GAY MEN FACE ABE, PRISON
• ATTACK ON BLOGGER DRIV UZBEK GAY MUNY UNRGROUND
• GAY COUPLE UZBEKISTAN - UZBEKISTAN FOM
• MURR IN TASHKENT: KILLG OF GAY MAN SPOTLIGHTS PLIGHT OF UZBEK LGBT COMMUNY
• L’UZBEKISTAN è UN PAE GAY IENDLY?
• GAY UZBEKISTAN TODAY

GAY LIFE UZBEKISTAN

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?

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. 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.

UZBEKISTAN: GAY MEN FACE ABE, PRISON

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. 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.

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. 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.

ATTACK ON BLOGGER DRIV UZBEK GAY MUNY UNRGROUND

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.

GAY COUPLE UZBEKISTAN - UZBEKISTAN FOM

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. 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.

MURR IN TASHKENT: KILLG OF GAY MAN SPOTLIGHTS PLIGHT OF UZBEK LGBT COMMUNY

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”. 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.

L’UZBEKISTAN è UN PAE GAY IENDLY?

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.

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?

GAY UZBEKISTAN TODAY

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.