Citing a post by local Armenian blogger Kornelij Glas, Artmika at Unzipped: Gay Armenia says the BBC is reporting that a rally due to be staged in Tbilisi, capital of the neighbouring Republic of Georgia, on 29 July to promote minority rights has been canceled. The problem appears to be that the Council of Europe’s All Different All Equal procession would have included members of Georgia’s gay and lesbian community.

An event promoting tolerance and cultural dialogue in Georgia has been cancelled, after rumours spread that it was in fact a gay parade.

The highly influential head of the Georgian Orthodox church spoke out against the event.

Organisers told the BBC they feared that the participants could have been attacked if it went ahead.

Gays have come under attack in former Soviet republics, with the Orthodox Church one of their main critics.

Since false rumours spread that the planned event was a demonstration for homosexual rights, the organisers say they have received large numbers of abusive telephone calls and emails, some making threats of physical violence.

[…]

The head of the Georgian Orthodox church had also warned that any rally involving sexual minorities would cause widespread offence and possibly lead to physical confrontation.

Georgia is a highly religious country which prides itself on its traditional Christian values.

Although homosexuality is legal, it is widely regarded as immoral. Gay rights activists in Georgia say homosexuals are often the targets for abuse and physical violence.

In an earlier post, Artmika said that such an event would set quite a precedent for what still remains an extremely traditionalist and conservative region while also admitting that the idea of combining sexual and religious or cultural minorities might not exactly work. He has a point.

It seems to me a bit strange of having Gay Parade as a common event with ethnic and religious minorities, not because I do not wanna see it, quite the contrary, I think all minorities should join forces in their fight for equality and universal human rights for everyone. However, knowing reality and mentality of people there, I doubt that, say, Armenians or Azerbaijanis as “ethnic minority” (not as “sexual minority”) will march with gay Georgians, or that Muslim people as “religious minority” will join the event, unless they are gay. I fear that due to widespread homophobia in Georgian society, like everywhere else in the region, ethnic or religious minorities may find marching with LGBT people or being related to them as too much of negative publicity and trouble for them. Besides, many of representatives of organised ethnic or religious minority groups are homophobes themselves, and along with representatives of various groups from ‘majority’ promote hate and intolerance towards gay people.

Anyway, it’s always been interesting for me to note the reaction of Armenians from the Diaspora to what can be quite an open gay and lesbian community in Yerevan, especially if they go to specific clubs or discos. However, then comes along reports of police shaking down guys they suspect of being gay late at night, or the murder of a gay American and the ensuing intimidation and victimization of the gay community in Yerevan by the police in the weeks that followed.

Joshua Haglund arrived in Armenia in September, 2003 as part of a United States State Department program. He was a teacher at Brusov State Linguistics University and was scheduled to leave Armenia later in the week in which he was killed.

He was gay, and many here have speculated that Joshua Haglund’s death was a “hate crime” in a society of low-tolerance for “alternative lifestyles”. Known members of Yerevan’s gay community – including those with American citizenships – were frequently detained by police for questioning in the days immediately following the murder.

Let’s face facts. Most Armenians are homophobic and some even refuse to accept that homosexuality exists in Armenia, but it does. It always has, and my take is let everyone lead their life the way they want to as long as it doesn’t infringe upon the rights of anyone else — heterosexual and homosexual alike. Basically, it’s a matter of human rights, plain and simple. Interesting to find a Gay Armenia blog though, and refreshing to see it also examine the situation in neighbouring countries.

Incidentally, it looks as though there is some attempt to pass a bill in Congress to push the Armenian Government to solve Josh Haglund’s murder. Basically, it looks as though the authorities had no interest in doing so.

On May 17, 2004, Minnesota native and University alumnus Joshua Haglund was found brutally murdered outside his apartment in Yerevan, Armenia.

Three years later, Haglund’s family still searches for answers to questions surrounding his death. Now, with the help of a new bill introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., they hope to find some of those answers.

McCollum introduced the Joshua Haglund Justice and Peace Act of 2007 earlier this year. The bill calls for the U.S. government to work with Armenia to resolve Haglund’s murder, in addition to allocating $250,000 toward a University learning abroad scholarship established in his honor.

Haglund, 33, taught English in the former Soviet Union republic as part of a program at the state-run Linguistics University in Armenia, an exchange program overseen by the U.S. State Department. He is believed to be the first American citizen to die of violence in Armenia.

[…]

The passage of time since Haglund’s murder has done little to clear up details surrounding his death. The investigation was formally suspended in 2004 when police failed to produce a suspect.

Haglund was openly gay, and Armenian officials have speculated that his death was a hate crime in a society with a low tolerance for homosexuality.

[…]

The lawyers, Tigran and Marina Janoyan, insist that Armenian law enforcement authorities badly mistreated innocent people and deliberately ignored key facts connected to the murder. The lawyers also hinted that police may already know who committed the crime.

In a written statement sent to the Yerevan prosecutor’s office and several Armenian newspapers, the lawyers outlined what they believe to be several deliberate missteps by Yerevan police as part of a high-level cover-up. The lawyers cite prevailing prejudices against gays in Armenia and allege certain suspects were given the benefit of the doubt because of their influential acquaintances.

Shortly after releasing the document, the lawyers were forced to flee Armenia because of repeated threats made on their family.

That full story is here, and if you’re interested, homosexuality was decriminalized in Armenia as part of the country’s CE obligations on 9 January 2003. Georgia decriminalized sex between consenting adult males three years earlier, but traditional values obviously remain strong.