Amnesty International called the cause of the deterioration of the attitude towards gays in the former Soviet Union
Moscow. 22 Dec. INTERFAX.RU — the Russian campaign against “nontraditional sexual relations” contributed to the growing hostility to sexual minorities (LGBTI — lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex) in the post-Soviet countries, says the report of the international human rights organization Amnesty International.
Amnesty International on Friday published a report “Less than equal: LGBTI human rights defenders in Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan”, which addresses the growing discrimination against human rights organizations defending the rights of LGBTI people, including in the human rights community.
“In these four countries, the closest allies of the Kremlin in the post-treatment of members of the LGBTI community is becoming increasingly negative, partly as a result of homophobic rhetoric at the official level distributes Moscow”, — have informed “Interfax” in the press service of the organization.
Amnesty International noted that LGBTI activists in these countries are not the first to face discrimination, including from other human rights NGOs.
“However, Russian influence and the penetration of Russian media played a significant role in the progressive deterioration of the situation of the LGBTI community in the region. A large-scale offensive on the rights of LGBTI people in Russia has pushed the governments of other countries to carry out the same repressive policies and reinforced society’s negative attitude to LGBTI people in these countries, including from the so-called “mainstream” human rights organizations”, — said the Deputy Director of programmes, Amnesty International Europe and Central Asia Denis Krivosheev, whose words were quoted in a press-service.
According to him, Russia promoted the idea that gay rights are “Western values”, representing a threat to national security, supported by other countries. “This atmosphere of hatred and ignorance cultivated by national governments and infects even the human rights community in the region,” added Krivosheev.
The report notes that governments of all four countries studied in the recent years has taken steps to limit rights of sexual minorities. “In all countries there have been attempts to hold homophobic laws on “gay propaganda” similar to Russia’s. At the moment, similar to the Russian law in force since 2016 in Belarus, in other countries these homophobic overtures have not yielded results. Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, in turn, in 2015 and 2016 amended their constitutions expressly banning same-sex marriages,” — added the press service.