Armenian Gays Face Intolerance, Discrimination
Job-seekers routinely rejected because of sexual orientation.
Armenian Gays Face Intolerance, Discrimination
Job-seekers routinely rejected because of sexual orientation.
Nineteen-year-old Argam Babayan’s dyed blond locks, carefully manicured fingernails, plucked eyebrows and eyeshadow set him apart from most young men his age in Armenia.
Fearing he would face discrimination as a homosexual in this conservative society, Argam used to explain away his unusual appearance by saying he was a follower of the “emo” trend in music and fashion.
Like all young men in Armenia, Argam was due for conscription into the army when he turned 18. But when he told the medical examiner at the draft office he was gay, he was rejected for service.
Since coming out, Argam has been unable to find permanent work, and has turned to prostitution as a way of earning a living.
“I’m a floral designer, but wherever I apply for work, I get refused,” he said. “They don’t say it’s because of my hair or clothing, they just show me the door and say they’ll call. But they never do. It’s because of all this that they never call back, but I can’t live without my hair and these clothes.”
Precise figures for Armenia are not available, but applying United Nations data showing that the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual, LGBT, community makes up between four and seven per cent of most countries’ populations, the number for Armenia would be 12,000 or 13,000.
The main meeting point for members of Armenia’s LGBT community is Mankakan Park near Yerevan City Hall.
On an adjacent street, transvestite prostitutes gather after 10 or 11 in the evening. Argam is now among them, calling himself Reza as he touts for business.
“I started coming to the park more often and began socialising with the transvestites, and one day I just asked them, ‘Guys, I can’t find a job, can I join you?’” he recalled. “They said, ‘No problem, just be careful, it’s dangerous.’”
He added, “It’s true, terrible things do happen, you might get into a fight, or get chased by youths. If they catch you, they might beat you up or shoot you with a gas pistol.”
In 2008, Armenia ratified a raft of international agreements on sexuality and gender identity, but the LGBT community continues to exist in an atmosphere of intolerance.
Mamikon Hovsepyan, who heads PINK, a charity that works on venereal disease prevention, the gay community struggles because negative stereotypes are widespread and it is difficult to live openly.
“Intolerance starts in the family. Armenians don’t understand that their sexual orientation isn’t a disease,” Hovsepyan said.
Vahan, a 26-year-old who did not give his surname, said his parents were unaware he was bisexual.
“My parents are very conservative, and they’d never understand. But at work, people know about it and accept me for who I am,” he said.
Vahan is one of the lucky few, as employers commonly dismiss staff when they find out they are members of the LGBT community.
“I’m a volunteer for an organisation called ‘We are for Social Equality’, and we’re trying to get employers to take back workers from our community whom they’ve fired. Of course, they do get their jobs back, but soon enough some excuse is found to fire them again. They [employers] say they’re bad workers or have done something wrong.”
The office of Armenia’s human rights ombudsman seemed unaware that the LGBT community faced discrimination, saying no one had made a formal complaint in this regard.
“We get non-specific complaints such as that they’re hated or ignored, but nothing concrete,” said Grigori Grigoryants, spokesman for the ombudsman’s office. “Intolerance of gays does exist in Armenia because of the religious views here, but either nothing explicitly illegal is done to them, or else they haven’t come to us with specific complaints.”
Hovsepyan, however, said denial of employment opportunities was a real problem. He said dozens of gay people had resorted to prostitution because other jobs were unavailable.
“Of course there are those for whom prostitution is just a sideline, but most homosexuals get involved in it because of financial difficulties,” he said.
For those like Argam whose external appearance is part of their sexual identity, it is especially difficult to keep their orientation secret from prospective employers.
“It’s impossible to start working somewhere and not reveal that you’re a homosexual,” he said. “Eventually it comes out, and you lose your job. That’s why I have to do this [prostitution].”
Sara Khojoyan is a reporter for ArmeniaNow.
