Armenia: LGBT Blogs

With blogs becoming synonymous with heated online political debate of late, there is the danger that the real potential for blogging in Armenia is being missed. That is, while most political blogs simply duplicate the views of an already polarized media, the voices of those stuck in between, denied access to the airwaves, or who are simply misrepresented, are often ignored.

However, in the area of specialist subject matters such as education, the situation might be slowly changing. This is also true when it comes to what is fast becoming an active LGBT blogging scene. Ironically, however, bloggers in Armenia were first used by the media to perpetuate the homophobia prevalent in society, as Unzipped: Gay Armenia reported in January.

What on earth homosexuals have to do with an article on blogging in Armenia, one may wonder. The answer is simple. Journalist Tatev Harutyunyan probably worried that her article on blogging would not attract much attention, so she had to sensationalise it, to spice things up. What else could be more attention grabbing than gay-related headline or homophobic rhetoric? Nothing, apparently.

[…]

I was not surprised in relation to Aravot newspaper’s periodic ‘masterpieces’. Last spring it published an ill-informed and blatantly homophobic article on gay people in Armenia, ironically rightly stating that gay life is pretty much hidden in our country without even realising (?) that it’s partly because of media attitudes like theirs, that gay men and women prefer remaining ‘in closet’ (“hidden”).

Since then, however, the number of LGBT blogs from Armenia and the Diaspora has mushroomed. In part, this is probably because of the important precedent set by Unzipped: Gay Armenia. The blogger from Armenia now resident in England truly did cover sensitive issues such as gender, homosexuality and homophobia in what remains a largely male-dominated country with little tolerance for sexual minorities or women’s rights.

The full post is available on Global Voices Online.