Azerbaijan gay
Being Gay in Azerbaijan
Sergey Bagirov is a year-old gay man from Baku. For the past 20 years, he has had no contact with his parents.
“My problems with the family started when I realized that I was gay,” Bagirov said. “At the time, I was somehow ashamed of it and confessed everything to my parents, especially because it was necessary to illustrate why I was beaten at school every day… My father threw me out of the house that same day. I was 14 years old. They did not even give me my documents. I am now over 30 years old and still do not have a passport.”
Bagirov works as a plasterer and painter renovating flats. He said that discrimination was also rife in the workplace.
“Sometimes those you work with find out that you are gay and reject you. Then I had to work alone, and here again there were problems. Sometimes clients have refused to settle me and threatened that they would complain to the police. And the police never assist gays and do not accept their side,” he said.
Homophobia in Azerbaijan is so widespread that the c
Forced Out: LGBT People in Azerbaijan
This mutual ILGA-Europe and COC report is the first of its kind to be published about queer relationships and LGBT people in Azerbaijan. It explores identities, common human rights violations, the landscape of LGBT organising, health and HIV/AIDS, and relevant legal aspects. It also provides recommendations to the Azerbaijani government, donors, LGBT activists and international organisations.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are not invisible in the predominantly Muslim Azerbaijani society. Tens of transgender sex workers go into the main lane of the capital city Baku every night, prominent showbiz figures barely cloak their sexual orientation, mass media gives more space every day to the subject of sexual orientation and gender identities. And yet one should not be misled by this relative visibility: there is a price of estrangement from family, bullying, social exclusion, discrimination, blackmailing and loathe crimes attached to it.
Forced Out: LGBT People in AzerbaijanDownload
A new film supported by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC) tells the story about the recent purge against the LGBTI people in Azerbaijan.
Random arrests
&#; Our journalist-partners have documented random arrests of people, beatings and use of electroshock, says Mina Skouen, Senior Advisor on LGBTI in NHC.
At least 50 of them were imprisoned for over 20 days. Many of the victims missing their apartments and jobs upon release, and dwell in fear of modern assaults.
Electroshock
&#; I couldn’t advance after they beat my head, knees and arms with baton and they used electro shock times, says Khayal. The 29 year has been too frightened since his release to contact lawyer and contain fled his apartment, worried about being arrested again.
The arrests were “appropriate measures to restore public direct and security”, according to Azerbaijani authorities. These charges have not been substantiated. The film exposes the real reason for the purge: Because of their assumed sexual orientation and gender identity.
Calls for action
&#; NHC calls for international action now against the severe
Rainbow Map
rainbow map
These are the main findings for the edition of the rainbow map
The Rainbow Chart ranks 49 European countries on their respective legal and policy practices for LGBTI people, from %.
The UK has dropped six places in ILGA-Europe’s Rainbow Map, as Hungary and Georgia also register steep falls following anti-LGBTI legislation. The data highlights how rollbacks on LGBTI human rights are part of a broader erosion of democratic protections across Europe. Read more in our press release.
“Moves in the UK, Hungary, Georgia and beyond signal not just isolated regressions, but a coordinated global backlash aimed at erasing LGBTI rights, cynically framed as the defence of tradition or public stability, but in reality designed to entrench discrimination and suppress dissent.”
- Katrin Hugendubel, Advocacy Director, ILGA-Europe
Malta has sat on highest of the ranking for the last 10 years.
With 85 points, Belgium jumped to second place after adopting policies tackling hatred based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics.