Wednesday 5 August 2009

Armenia: perceived to be gay

Last year I posted on Unzipped about alleged stabbing incident in Yerevan involving Indian students. As it was not possible to confirm the news, I deleted the content of that post due to its sensitive nature. However, there was one comment left by a reader of this blog Souren (see below), which I think worth re-posting here separately as it raises an important issue of cliches and notions on masculinity, perceptions of being gay or straight in Armenia (and many other 'traditional', macho societies). Things are changing for better, of course, but the problem remains and need to be challenged.

"In my opinion a story like that might have happened, because the Indian guys' dress code is not accepted by local Armenian guys. Indians wear earrings, have different hair styles and goatees which Armenian guys call gay and it irritates the Indians.
BUT..not only Indians are subject to this provocation, the same problem occurs even for local Armenian guys who dress differently and are considered to be gay."

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