Armenian MPs call for transgender activist Lilit Martirosyan to be burned alive after high-profile speech
- Martirosyan became the first member of her country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community to take to the parliamentary podium
Armenia’s first registered transgender woman has received death threats after making a speech in her country’s national assembly.
Lilit Martirosyan became the first member of her country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community to take to the parliamentary podium, speaking out against discrimination at a session of its committee on human rights.
Martirosyan expressed solidarity with a community that has been “tortured, raped, kidnapped, subjected to physical violence, burned, immolated, knifed, subjected to murder attempt, killed, emigrated, and robbed”. She said transgender people in Armenia are subjected “to stigma and discrimination in social, medical, legal, economic areas, and … [are left] unemployed, poor and morally abandoned”.
The speech, two weeks ago, has since sparked a backlash in Armenia, where homosexuality has been decriminalised but discrimination against LGBT people is rife. There have been anti-LGBT protests in front of the national assembly and verbal attacks made by some parliamentarians have included calls for her to be burned alive.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and the main opposition have tried to blame each other for allowing Martirosyan’s speech.
