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 Sparking need to increase international outcry and calls for boycotts

By Melanie Nathan, August 08, 2013.

It would seem that the recent promulgation of anti-gay laws in Russia is spreading in the region.  We are receiving reports from Yerevan, Armenia that  Armenia’s police have proposed a ban on promoting “non-traditional sexual relationships” in the country.

The proposed amendment to Armenia’s administrative offenses law was placed on the website of Armenia’s police this week. It is reported that the amendments says citizens, legal entities, and officials will be fined up to $4,000 for “propagating “non-traditional sexual relationships.””

Armenia and the majority of other former Soviet republics decriminalized homosexuality in the early 1990s.  Yet, hostility and homophobic violence toward gays and lesbians is high in the region is continuing to increase, especially in Russia, with the recent legislation that bans the so called ‘propaganda’ of what is referred to as “non-traditional sexual relationships” to minors, as well as the impact of notorious radical U.S. Christian extremist Scott Lively, who has boasted about his escapades in the region, where he has influenced political and religious leaders.

The enactment of the Russian laws, now spreading in the region, serves as further impetus to maintain our pressure to call for rescission of the laws which serve to persecute gays, lesbians,  transgender people and allies in Russia.  The odious laws have already sparked a huge international outcry, to include boycotts of Russian vodka,  and calls for the International Olympic Committee to remove the Winter Olympics from Sochi, Russia.