LGBT Rights in Belarus - Free Speech Rights

Free Speech Rights

The internet provider Beltelecom (a monopoly telecom provider in Belarus), which controls the external gateway, tried to block access to gay sites, at least from internet clubs. Internet resources for gays and lesbians in Belarus have recently been operating without problems. However, access is blocked to Russian gay internet sites, including Gay.ru.

The first gay parade held in the Commonwealth of Independent States was held in 2001 in Minsk. It was a peaceful march, with about 300 people in attendance. It soon became clear why it was so peaceful: the parade was held two days before the presidential elections and the parade became a convenient pretext for discrediting opposition candidates.

A private company in Belarus censored gay personal ads on its gay-oriented website, Apagay.com, today known as Gay.by. In response to complaints, the website owner first explained that they had the right to edit personal ads. Then they stated they were merely implementing recommendations, but did not state whose recommendations.

In July 1998, directors of the state National Television and Radio Company of Belarus prohibited the popular TV programs "King’s Hunt" and "It’s All Right, Mama" from using material featuring the "Singing Queens Show" on the grounds that the programs’ characters confessed they were gay.

The only specialised magazine for the LGBT community (Forum Lambda magazine) was published by Lambda Belarus in Russia and disseminated in Belarus from 1998 to 2002. The publication has been banned several times by the State Publishing Committee.

The main source of information about life of LGBT community in Belarus is the internet portal Gay.by. It is one of ten most visited sites in Belarus with a monthly audience of over 350,000 visitors. The creators of the web site encounter a lot of problems when trying to disseminate information about homosexuality. In December 2002, Belarusian State University in Minsk banned access to all gay internet resources. In March 2003 the administration of the internet café “Soyuz Online”, the biggest and most popular among gays in Minsk, blocked Gay.by. In January 2004, the national web hosting company N1.BY refused Gay.by its services. Earlier in 2003 the system administrator of "Krasnaya Banernaya" (RED.BY) banned the portal Gay.by from participating in banner exchange. On 10 May 2003, an unknown hacker broke into the Belarusian gay and lesbian web site Gay.by. The hacker deleted all topics on the site's forum and started a new thread containing an appeal to kill gays. In addition while downloading the home page of Gay.by the notification “PIDARS MUST DIE” and “STOP PIDARS IN BELARUS” appeared on the screen. The hacker’s break in was followed by telephone calls to the members of the site’s team with threats of physical violence.

In 2003, Lambda Belarus leader Edward Tarletski wrote a letter to the head of the Minsk Postal Service asking to explain why all international correspondence for Forum Lambda and Tarletski personally was always received open and damaged.

However a new line of sites keeps the Belarus LGBT audience well-informed and entertained. The first Belarus gay blog, sunshine.by since 2003 have been keeping abreast of all developments in the country, providing invaluable insight into the world of Gay, Lesbian, Bi and Transgender community of the country.