INTERNATIONAL LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANS AND INTERSEX ASSOCIATION
INTERNATIONAL LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANS AND INTERSEX ASSOCIATION
BELARUS
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Readers Experiences
This is what people are saying about life for LGBTI people in BELARUS...
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Aliaksandr Paluyan, Gay.by
(user currently living in BELARUS)
posted for
gay
readers
on 13/01/2010
tagged with homophobia, lgbti migrants
+12
More than a half of gays and lesbians in Belarus want to leave their country
About a half of visitors of Gay.by who were participating in the survey on the topic «Have you ever thought of leaving Belarus because of homophobia?» have answered yes. Moreover a fifth of participants are ready to do so at the first opportunity. In all there were 408 people who took part in the survey.
If to compare this result with the all-Belarus research on the wish to leave the country conducted by the Sociometrical Laboratory “NOVAK” the situation with gay minorities greatly differs from all the immigration wishers.
According to the “NOVAK” research about 40% of youth and unemployed wish to leave Belarus (taking all the population this index is twice lower). 14,7% of unemployed found it difficult to answer if they wished to leave the country . This means that leaving Belarus could be a possible variant for them . And 12,5% simply don't have money for immigration.
If we take gay and lesbian community and the wish the leave the country because of homophobia we will see the following situation:
56% want to leave the country (21% of them will do at the first possibility)
9% have already left the country
26% won't leave the country, and 9% consider that there is no homophobia in Belarus .
If we make a rough calculation we can see that 65% want or have already left the country and 35% don't want to leave.
The main reason why the representatives of gay and lesbian community want to leave the country is the social disapproval of homosexual relations, violence against gays and lesbians, the absence of social defense, law basis, civilized recreation sector, and also the fear of losing the job if the fact of being a homosexual will be revealed to the authorities. 56% of gays and lesbians face the facts of homophobia at work while 13% of them face it regularly.
The main destinations that are chosen by Belarusians for leaving are the USA and the countries of Western Europe .
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About a half of visitors of Gay.by who were participating in the survey on the topic «Have you ever thought of leaving Belarus because of homophobia?» have answered yes. Moreover a fifth of participants are ready to do so at the first opportunity. In all there were 408 people who took part in the survey.
If to compare this result with the all-Belarus research on the wish to leave the country conducted by the Sociometrical Laboratory “NOVAK” the situation with gay minorities greatly differs from all the immigration wishers.
According to the “NOVAK” research about 40% of youth and unemployed wish to leave Belarus (taking all the population this index is twice lower). 14,7% of unemployed found it difficult to answer if they wished to leave the country . This means that leaving Belarus could be a possible variant for them . And 12,5% simply don't have money for immigration.
If we take gay and lesbian community and the wish the leave the country because of homophobia we will see the following situation:
56% want to leave the country (21% of them will do at the first possibility)
9% have already left the country
26% won't leave the country, and 9% consider that there is no homophobia in Belarus .
If we make a rough calculation we can see that 65% want or have already left the country and 35% don't want to leave.
The main reason why the representatives of gay and lesbian community want to leave the country is the social disapproval of homosexual relations, violence against gays and lesbians, the absence of social defense, law basis, civilized recreation sector, and also the fear of losing the job if the fact of being a homosexual will be revealed to the authorities. 56% of gays and lesbians face the facts of homophobia at work while 13% of them face it regularly.
The main destinations that are chosen by Belarusians for leaving are the USA and the countries of Western Europe .
By Sergey Yenin (probably the most dramatic 1,000 words written about a Gay Pride event anywhere in the world this year)
There were four of us in the taxi. Myself, Logan (and Australian filmmaker), Jack (his boyfriend) and Chad (a photographer working on a project Walk with Pride). I couldn’t help shivering in anticipation of the upcoming Pride march and the possible extreme few hours that I would probably face. But I couldn’t let my friends worry as well. The taxi driver noticed that something was really wrong with the place he had to drop us off.
“What’s going on here? Who are you?” – the taxi driver asked me. “Just tourists going to the hotel” – I responded. It was the place where the Pride was going to take place and was situated near a hotel.
Logan prepared his camera and Jack took a paper notebook and a pen into his hands: “I hope I will look like a journalist,” he remarked.
All: http://gaybelarus.by/english/slavic-pride/arrested-beaten-threatened-jailed-and-sent-for-trial-just-for-taking-part-in-slavic-gay-pride.html
Foto i video Slavic Gay Pride in Minsk: http://gaybelarus.by/naviny/slavic-pride/v-minske-sostoyalsya-vtoroi-slavyanskii-gei-praid-foto-i-video.html