‘It is you who are fake’: LGBT activist protests against Belarus officials’ gay-bashing
Belsat
31 May 2018, 19:32
Protesting against the recent homophobic statement by the Interior Ministry, LGBT activist Vika Biran had her pictures taken in front of the ministerial building, the KGB headquarters and the House of Government House. She was holding the poster ‘It Is You Who Are Fake’.
„It hit me – I should do something, scrolling Facebook is not enough. I called my friend and asked her to take pictures of me. I made the poster. Why can they talk about me in such a manner, but i can’t? It is not fair, I feel much aggrieved, and I want to show that they have offended me. I will not tolerate such things.”
According to the activist, her actions can hardly be called ‘picketing’, she was just photographed near official buildings with the poster in her hands.
As reported earlier, the Belarusian Ministry expressed resentment over the fact that the British Embassy in Minsk displayed a rainbow flag, a symbol of the LGBT community, on May 17.
The Interior Ministry may have provoked the launch of a new movement. At the moment, concerned Internet users are collecting signatures under the appeal to the Prosecutor General: they demand the legality of the statement be checked. Hashtag #НеПодделка (NoFake) in social networks became the answer of the Belarusians, indignant with the position of the local siloviki.
The ministry’s controversial stance has not gone unnoticed by foreign media.
31 May 2018, 19:32
“I came up with the idea last night, when I was reading latest news, articles, various interviews on this subject. At first, I felt hurt by the fact that they told such unpleasant things about me, my friends and colleagues, i.e. we are fake. But then I flew into a temper and realised that I could not just be frustrating over the news, I could not just see other people chewing it over and our officials saying that me, my life and my love was a fake,” Vika Biran told The Village Belarus.
„It hit me – I should do something, scrolling Facebook is not enough. I called my friend and asked her to take pictures of me. I made the poster. Why can they talk about me in such a manner, but i can’t? It is not fair, I feel much aggrieved, and I want to show that they have offended me. I will not tolerate such things.”
According to the activist, her actions can hardly be called ‘picketing’, she was just photographed near official buildings with the poster in her hands.
As reported earlier, the Belarusian Ministry expressed resentment over the fact that the British Embassy in Minsk displayed a rainbow flag, a symbol of the LGBT community, on May 17.
“Not taking into account traditions and pillars of the society, supporters of same-sex relationships are fiercely defending their position. By any measure, same-sex relationships are fake. And the essence of fakes is always the same, i.e the depreciation of the truth. The LGBT community, the struggle for ‘their rights’, and the LGBT day itself are nothing but a fake! Belarus rests on the foundation of traditional institutions of family and marriage. At the same time, we are equally open to all that is useful, necessary and progressive: for all that will make the lives of Belarusians better and contribute to the development of society as a whole. We are for true-life things, and they [LGBT] shall not pass!” the official statement reads.
The Interior Ministry may have provoked the launch of a new movement. At the moment, concerned Internet users are collecting signatures under the appeal to the Prosecutor General: they demand the legality of the statement be checked. Hashtag #НеПодделка (NoFake) in social networks became the answer of the Belarusians, indignant with the position of the local siloviki.
The ministry’s controversial stance has not gone unnoticed by foreign media.
