beLarus
“I was having hospital treatment for a stomach ulcer at the time. The police came to the hospital and dragged me to their car. They asked what I had been doing in Minsk with other gays. I refused to talk to them, so they started to punch my head and chest. They told me not to go to Minsk anymore and to not get involved with the organization.”
‘eVerYone is equaL in the repubLic of beLarus’
“There’s only one life and we should live it as best we can.”
“I am an openly gay man. I’m not embarrassed and I don’t hide it – I try to show that it’s normal. I dress like a woman when I perform as a drag artist in clubs. But it’s very difficult. You have to be prepared for negative situations all the time, attacks by young people, relatives, the political authorities. “It’s normal for gay people in Belarus to hide their lives. If they’ve been beaten up or fired, they don’t know how to complain to the authorities. Many of my friends turn to me and ask for help. “The LGBTI [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex] community here used to be very united. But government policy has become very homophobic recently – gay clubs have been shut down, it’s impossible to organize events, meetings, parties – so people have started to lose touch with each other.”
kicked out of church “I am an Orthodox Christian. I used to like going to a monastery in Hrodna [in north-western Belarus] and knew an abbess there. Then I went to gay pride in Moscow in 2009, I gave a lot of interviews. The next time I went to Hrodna, the abbess kicked me out of church during the service in front of the whole parish. She pointed at me and said that ‘this boy,
Ihar, he's gay, he likes men’. She told the congregation to spit at people like me, and to expel me if I came again, because I spoiled the reputation of the church. “My mum is very conservative and religious, so when she saw me hugging and kissing a boy in my room one day she was shocked. She didn’t talk to me for about a month, and then she said she would take me to see a priest to confess, because I had a demon sitting inside me. “Then I finished school and left home, and it calmed down. Nowadays she supports me, and even asks about my personal life and tells me to be careful with my health.”
dragged from hospitaL “We tried to set up Lambda, a human rights organization that protects LGBTI people, in December 2012. The government started to fight us after we applied to the Ministry of Justice with enough signatures to register it [as required by law]. The police called the founding members in for questioning, asking why we had signed the application and pressurized us to write letters denouncing it.
After the attack, my family became scared of being attacked. I told them I’d protect them. Some of my friends expressed support and understanding, but others said I shouldn’t complain or I’d have more problems and could be killed. “I wrote a complaint, and when I told the police officers they said: ‘Boy, aren’t you worried that you’ll end up with nine grams [a bullet] in your forehead?’. I couldn’t believe that they’d openly say that to me. “I still feel humiliated and empty, because there’s nothing I can do. We don’t have enough ways to fight, or good enough legislation to protect LGBTI people in Belarus. “It will mean a lot for us to get support from Amnesty’s Write for Rights campaign. LGBTI people will feel braver and more hopeful. It will show that everyone is equal in the Republic of Belarus.”
write a Letter - stand with him Support Ihar by sending a letter or a card to: Ihar Tsikhanyuk, c/o belarus Team, Amnesty International, 1 easton Street, London Wc1X 0dW, United Kingdom. call on belarus’ General Prosecutor to investigate police officers’ ill-treatment and threats against Ihar Tsikhanyuk at the october district police station in Hrodna in February 2013, and to bring those responsible to justice. write to (start your letter: dear General Prosecutor): Alyaksandr Koniuk, Generalnaya Prokuratura, ul. Internatsionalnaya 22, 220030 minsk, belarus. email: info@prokuratura.gov.by fax: +375 17 226 42 52 (please say “fax” if someone answers)
twitter > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >foLLow > >@amnestYonLine > > > >on > > and > tweet > >using > #write4rights > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > 25 > > > wire [ noV/dec 2013 ]