Isn't Cher Armenian? What's she doing in Baku? What has been of greatest concern is the lack of rights, or of any visibility, of the LGBT community in Azerbaijan. Some Western media, as reported in the Guardian have even called for a boycott of next year's Eurovision in Baku in protest. This would be a serious blow to the contest (due to its huge gay fanbase) and would portray Azerbaijan in a very negative light. However, in the past week, two news items have had much coverage in Azeri media outlets that may go to change this image.
The respectable Baku crowd applaud La Pugachova, oops La Beranzhe.
The second breakthrough came yesterday when Azeri news sources boldly announced that Azerbaijan's first gay website has been launched www.gay.az. As the news.az website reports, this is the first domain of its kind in the Caucasus. Interestingly, the site is in Russian, not in Azeri (a bit about that later) and has been set up by Ruslan Balukhin. Well done!
These developments are quite amazing and fast, considering that it was only less than a week ago that there were public calls for a gay boycott. Could it be that this has emboldened Azerbaijan's LGBT community into assertive action? If so, the Eurovision Song Contest may have a very positive effect on the visibility and acceptance of the LGBT community in Azerbaijan.
However, I still think we should be cautious here. Some might find the timing of this new gay website a little suspicious. More surprising is that Azeri government media outlets have rather publicly announced this - something unlikely to have happened had there been no focus on Azerbaijan's LGBT rights situation, as is the case now. Seen in a cynical way, news of this site and of the pictures of Aladora's show in Baku could be the Azeri government's way of trying to build a picture that Azerbaijan is accommodating of LGBT people and that calls for a gay boycott of Eurovision are groundless. If this is not the case, then Azerbaijan has at least made a bold start, but it has a very, very long way to go before it is seen in a fraction of the same light as gay-friendly countries. We must remember that like many other countries, Azerbaijan has a traditional and socially conservative side, so we shouldn't expect that LGBT rights will advance so fast that come May 2012 there will have been a complete change in Azerbaijani attitudes. It took decades before that happened in many Western European countries, and even in these countries homophobia still exists.
Istanbul Pride - Turkey can do it, so can Azerbaijan
Problems lie in the nature of these two news articles. The language used in both articles show that Azerbaijan is not at the same level on LGBT awareness as cultural brothers Turkey. I mean, who uses the antiquated term 'travesty show' these days? That's a term that fell out of common use in English-speaking countries in the 1950s. And much can be interpreted about local attitudes to homosexuality when the article described the gay.az website as a project set up by 'people of non-traditional sexual orientation'. I suspect this is more to do with an unwise vocabulary choice in translation, however as it stands, by labeling homosexuality as 'non-traditional' implies that it is new, introduced from outside and not something natural. Not good!
As I already mentioned, what is also interesting about the gay.az website is that it is in Russian and not Azerbaijani. This is somewhat understandable when looking at a broader cultural aspect. Azerbaijan, having been under Russian rule for the most part of the past 200 years, and like most other non-Russian, former Soviet republics, has a very Russified elite. During Soviet times, all throughout the USSR the key to career success was having perfect knowledge of Russian. Despite the varying efforts by the Soviet authorities to encourage local languages, speaking Russian was seen as a sign of culture and education, and this attitude has somewhat remained to this day in many former Soviet republics. Meanwhile, despite the efforts by the newly-independent governments to promote the local national language, the old Soviet-era popular attitude that only poor and uneducated peasants spoke that language also persists to a degree. Even though it is a joint official language in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Belarus only, the Soviet-era official notion of Russian as 'the language of inter-ethnic communication' still remains in practice in other ex-Soviet republics. The onslaught and ongoing popularity of slick Russian pop and media culture all throughout the ex-USSR (the Sovietsphere) also ensures that the Russian language is maintained by the general population and even picked up by children who weren't even born when the USSR collapsed. This scenario of Russian as the language of the educated, cultured elite and of inter-ethnic and external communication, while the local language is that of a lower class is reminiscent of the role English has in India and Pakistan or French in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. So with this in mind, the fact that the gay.az website is in Russian would indicate that they are targeting educated, urban-dwelling LGBT Azerbaijanis. This could be a disadvantage for a young gay Azeri person living in a very traditional rural area where Russian is not so prevalent. It is these rural Azeri gay people who most desperately need the communication. I hope that this is something that will soon be rectified by the gay.az coordinators as they develop their site. One particular bonus, though, is that by using Russian will facilitate communication by Azeri LGBT people with LGBT communities in other ex-Soviet, Russian-speaking countries, with which they share many modern cultural bonds... and restraints. A gay person in Baku will be better understood communicating in Russian to a gay person in Moscow, Kiev or Tashkent or even a Russian-speaker in the West than with anyone else.
Belgrade Pride last year. Will it be Baku Pride next year?
While there are some suspicions regarding the Azerbaijani authorities' rationale and intentions for breaking previous practice and making light of these developments, it does appear that the LGBT community in Azerbaijan is seeing the opportunity that lies ahead of them to make a difference to their lives, their society and country. I also hope that the Azeri authorities are sincere in their moves to grant greater freedom and access to LGBT Azerbaijanis and that this is not the cynical attempt to mislead and portray their country for something it isn't, all for the interests of national image or to avert negative press. We have seen similar bold moves made by some governments before, especially Eastern European countries in the pre-EU accession process when they were under extreme scrutiny for their treatment of human rights, and in particular LGBT rights. Many of these countries did what they thought would please the EU before accession and passed appropriate anti-discrimination legislation and/or allowed gay pride parades. However, once they were in the elite European club and the focus was off them, not only did some countries not put all aspects of anti-discrimination legislation into practice, many went back to their old homophobic ways and even banned gay pride parades (Latvia and Poland... I mean you). I sincerely hope that these first steps in Azerbaijan will lead to long-term fruition. LGBT rights are not just for 'Gay Christmas' i.e. Eurovision, they're for life.
thank you for this article. as a user of gay.az, and the moderator of the Gay.az in Azerbaijani, i have to tell that gay.az also has a forum section in azerbaijani. well, it's not useful as it sounds. the problem of azerbaijani lgbt people (mostly non-russian) depends on wrong lgbt stereotypes. even top gays think that being top is a kind of heterosexualism. so thats why our site MOSTLY in Russian. whatever, we have support for non-russian users.
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