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Belarus: KGB surveillance leads to a state of paranoia

Fun Fast Facts:

  • Same-sex sexual activity legal since 1994.
  • Same-sex sexual activity never illegal for females.
  • Taxes on same-sex inheritance higher than opposite-gender inheritance.
  • www.gay.by is one of the ten most visited sites in Belarus
  • Gay couples advised by the travel bureau to book separate hotel rooms.
  • KGB unit dedicated to homosexuality.

 

LGBT-friendly organisation: Gay Belarus

  • Currently trying to be registered as a legal organisation.
  • Police are still summoning gay activists for questioning.
  • Leader of the Gay Belarus had passport stripped just before trip to the U.S.

W3JOY interviewed: Logan Mucha, director of East Bloc Love and Jack Giles, production assistant

I think Belarus especially was a very, very scary time.

We spent pretty much every day with the gay Belarus organisation who were working out of an apartment. They were constantly scared that the KGB–which still, funnily enough, exists in Belarus–were going to be after them. They were in a state of paranoia and they made us constantly paranoid.

On the day of the march, I’ve never been so scared in my life. When the police started coming after us, I was trying to film, and I thought “I’d better look up and see where Jack is” and he had already bolted.

Meeting up with the first person we were staying with, he said “Never open the door to anyone, even the police.”

It’s kind of scary at the moment to see what’s happening in terms of activism. The organisations and all the people that we were there with, half of them have fled the country. So none of them are doing much activist work.

Unfortunately, since they’ve had so much difficulties, there’s not a lot of activism going on.

The pre-op transsexual male-to-female had to prove herself insane in front of psychiatrists in order to get surgery.

 

W3JOY interviewed: Caroline Shepherd, Amnesty International Australia

There is an ongoing campaign of intimidation and oppression.  After Gay Belarus tried to register as a legitimate organisation, in the weeks following that there was a whole series of police raids and intimidation.  LGBTQI night clubs were raided, people were photographed and prevented from leaving the room and their identities were taken down and then in the weeks after those raids at least 60 of the people involved in trying to set up this LGBTQI organisation were summoned for questioning by police.

The laws in Belarus are quite repressive and you can’t have any organisation or hold a public event unless you get permission from the authorities – even a one person picket has to get permission…In the case of LGBTQI events it is very rarely if ever granted.

People in Belarus are incredibly courageous and are finding many ways to continue their activities. Last year, a group of LGBTQI activities hired a tram and held a party on a tram without the authorities interference.

Every year Amnesty holds a letter writing marathon around Human Rights Day which is the 10th of December.  And every year we pick just a handful of cases of individuals who are at risk around the world and we gather together activists from around the world and encourage them to send and avalanche of letters to those governments in a concentrated period of time to try to really bring about a sudden movement in those peoples cases.

Published on: Feb 21, 2013 @ 9:32

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