English » Belarusian news » 1 March 2009 at 7³⁹

Belarusian Gay Activist Might End Up in Army After All

Revealed: A gay rights group complained to the military department about exemption.

In Eastern Europe, the gay community rarely speak one voice — and rarely go in the same direction. Worse still, gay rights groups often distract their fight against homophobes to better fight between themselves.

Last December in Poland, the gay advocacy NGO Kampanii Przeciw Homofobii (KPH) started a lawsuit against the Polish gay news website, Gaylife.pl. Several activists have been trying since then to offer help to privately settle the lawsuit in an attempt to avoid bringing the dispute on the public place.

Then in Russia, gay groups are fighting over the issue of Freedom of Assembly between those who believe that visibility is the key to be accepted in the society and those who claim that gay activism should remain discrete.

Belarus is not exempt from the same fractional fight.

It emerged today that Alexander Paluyan, the editor of gay.by, might finally be called up for military duty.

The openly gay young man was fighting a month ago for his right “not to serve” in the army after he was called for military duties. As an openly gay person, he feared for his personal security.

And surprisingly, even in Belarus, his fight had worked and he was exempt from conscription.

“According to the legislation, you are ready for military service and will be put on the list of conscripts, though we will put a special mark that you cannot serve in the army of the basis of your way of life,” Mr. Paluyan was told by the military authorities on January 9.

The outcome did not please several members of LGBT Net in Belarus who wrote on January 14th to the Military Prosecutor of Mozyr asking for the opening of an investigation of the decision that was taken in favour of Mr. Paluyan.

In his reply to the activists, Mr A. Danchenko, Military Prosecutor of Gomel, explains that after investigating: “The military department of Mozyr was called to correct the breaches of the legislation and call for disciplinary responsibility of the guilty official.”

In other words, after the letter from LGBT Net, Mr Paluyan now faces the chance to wear army boots in the coming weeks — and not because of Belarusian officials, but because of his own brothers.

“Unfortunately, now in Belarus, a moment has come when activists, who are not doing anything for the best of the Belarusian LGBT community, started to physically eliminate people who are actively dealing with the advocacy of the rights of homosexuals, behind the national legislation,” Mr. Paluyan said this afternoon in an email, in Russian, to UK Gay News.

“Such action by Svytaoslav Sementsov shows that he is not trying to improve the position of gays and lesbians in Belarus but is looking only for his personal benefit in the position which is now in Belarus.

“If he is supporting the Belarusian legislation to which he is giving reference, the question is what is he fighting for in our country and which dictatorship he is talking about.

“The most outrageous fact is that by publishing reports about the homophobia of the Belarusian society, including in the army, Svyatoslav intentionally tries to do everything that a gay is sent to the homophobic atmosphere and that he is being target with violence.

“After all that, I don′t understand, whose rights, and against what, is this person fighting”.

In January, a gay rights group wanted to conduct a demonstration in Mozyr to attract attention of the Belarusian authorities to the conditions of homosexuals in the army. The event was not authorized.

Source UkGayNews.Org.Uk

Author: Siarhei

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