09 Aug Armenia to ban promotion of gay and lesbian sexual relationships
Armenia’s police have proposed a ban on promoting ‘non-traditional sexual relationships’ in the Southern Caucasus nation.
The proposed amendments to Armenia’s administrative offenses law which GSN has seen were placed on the website of Armenia’s national police last week.
The police have drafted a proposed Article 47.7 to the Administrative Violations Code which would see Armenian citizens, legal entities and officials fined by up to $4,000 for promoting so-called ‘non-traditional sexual relationships.’
Armenia decriminalized homosexuality in 2003 after having banned sex between men under Soviet rule in 1936 but attitudes towards LGBTs appear to be hardening, with a series of attacks on gay bars in May of last year by far-right groups – though the country was the first to sign on to the UN Declaration on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in 2008.
LGBT Armenians have no legal recognition of their relationships, cannot adopt and have no legal protections from discrimination.
The move by Armenia to ban the promotion of ‘non-traditional relationships’ follows on the heels of Russia banning so-called ‘homosexual-propaganda’ – though a bid to ban public discussion of homosexuality in nearby Lithuania was recently blocked by the government there.
US talk show host Jay Leno recently compared the situation for gays in Russia to that of Jews in the beginnings of Nazi Germany.
Source: Gay star news