On Fri., April 5, the Armenian Gay and Lesbian Association of New York (AGLA NY) presents “Dealing with Difference,” a talk by Nancy Agabian and Nelli Sargsyan-Pittman on creative and documentary approaches to LGBT Armenian issues, at The Center in New York.
In May 2012, in Yerevan, two self-identified neo-fascist youths firebombed the gay-friendly bar DIY, and a mob of young protesters attacked a peaceful diversity march several weeks later. Many in the Armenian-American community were dismayed by these acts of hatred in their homeland, but others expressed homophobic sentiments, as evidenced by articles and online comments. The AGLANY event will shed light on some of the roots, causes, and effects of homophobia and intolerance towards difference in both Armenia and its diaspora. It also promises to start a reflective conversation on how to effect positive change in both these spheres.
Nancy Agabian is an author, performer, and teacher. Her memoir, Me as her again, nominated for a Lambda Literary Award and a William Saroyan International Writing Prize, casts her queer coming-of age within her Armenian-American family history. A Fulbright scholar to Armenia from 2006-07, she is currently working on a creative nonfiction book about the intersections of family, tradition, nationalism, and corruption in post-Soviet Armenia. She will read and discuss excerpts related to LGBT issues and tolerance from this work-in-progress.
Nelli Sargsyan-Pittman, a native of Yerevan, Armenia, is a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology at the State University of New York at Albany. She is currently completing her dissertation, which examines translocally-oriented Armenian queer artistic activism and the diverse ways in which men and women negotiate their ethnic and sexual difference in the Armenian-American diaspora. She will present some of her findings on gay, lesbian, and queer experiences in the U.S. diaspora by reading and discussing excerpts from the interviews she conducted with her research participants.
Noted writer, translator, and filmmaker Christopher Atamian will moderate the discussion. Atamian served as president of AGLA NY in 2007 and 2008, and currently sits on its Board of trustees.
The event begins at 7:30 p.m. at The Center, 208 West 13th Street, Room 310, in New York. It is free and open to the public.
Since 1998, AGLA NY has been providing space for lesbian, gay, bi, and transgender Armenian-Americans, their partners, and their allies to come together as a community. It seeks to inform Armenian communities, as well as the general public, about issues of importance to LGBT Armenians and LGBT Armenian-Americans. For more information, visit http://aglany.org.
Please take your stupid thinking and leave ARMENIA AND ARMENIANS ALONE. No REAL ARMENIAN WILL EVER BE OK WITH THEIR KID BEING GAY. SHAME
If this “gay movement” is so popular, why do articles like these need to be parasitically attached to this site instead of making a different site for such issues? Being gay is not a crime, but watering down and making a mockery of our traditional values is. I suppose your next article will be how Armenia was the world’s first Christian nation, then after that an article about Kim Kardashian mocking the Jesus Christ statue in Brazil with her out-of-wedlock freak pregnancy. Are these the “benefits” of multiculturalism and “diversity”? Ughh, excuse me while I find a barf-bag.
Anthony and Kevork,
All of a sudden we are a traditional culture.
Hogwash.
I’m not even sure what it means.
Parts of the traditional culture subjugated our women. My mother was not able to go out of town or have a date until she was 25.
In the United States there are maybe 6-8,000 PLEDGED members of the Armenian Apostolic Churches, both Diocesan and Prelacy. Out of maybe 1M people who have Armenian ancestry. Even if half are Evangelical, that is a sad, low number. But all of a sudden we are traditionalists.
Our people are beset with problems of crime and domestic violence too. Hardly traditional, or maybe these things were. Adultery of every sort – straight and Gay – is rampant, why aren’t you complaining about premarital sex among the rest of us?
If our traditional culture is Christian, we are admonished in that culture to love thy neighbor as thyself. Bitterly attacking Gay people merely for existing cannot be reconciled with Christ, even if He abhors Gay sex practices and adultery of all sorts.
Do we remember that Christ was champion of the hated and despised? Prostitutes, adulterers, tax collectors, Samaritans, thieves.
What do you have against these people adding to the national story?
I have no Gay children, but if they were, they would by my treasures, just like any others.
It is your hatefulness which is Amot.
Thanks to Nancy, Nelli, and Chris for bringing these issues to the front! Your work is very important to many Armenians and non-Armenians alike.
To jda and anyone else who takes my post the wrong way,
Actually there is some truth to your post, and I partially agree. However, I think you misunderstood my post. I can’t speak for Anthony, but like you, I would not disown my child either, and I do not have hatefulness.
There is however one issue I have, and that is that Gay politics is being used in Armenian issues which I think is not productive. I am not against gay people, and actually with the ones I have known, have found them to be even nicer than straight people, but to turn things into a political style conflict and make it an “us vs them” issue like they did in the USA, Europe and elsewhere is something we don’t need. Let these issues stay in families, not cultural is what I’m saying.
It is true that for many of us we are not “active” in our religion, and yet here again, it does not mean we are unbelievers. Our Christian identity has developed our culture for 1700 years. Even an Armenian ‘Atheist’ cannot escape these habits and cultural traits if they want to have anything to do with experiencing that Armenian culture fully. That’s what I mean when I say “traditional values”. It is what it is, and we as Armenians must at least respect it, instead of try to change it to conform to our present-day choices. There is a difference between that and cultural norms which get outdated.
I know you think it is strange that your mother’s parents were strict to not let her go out. but have you also considered that, that saved your mother from making the wrong choices in life? Things today are not as strict as how they used to be, and “cultural rules” are changing constantly. For example, if any Armenian today raised in the US were to transport back in time to an early 20th century or earlier Armenian village, they would get the shock of their life and what they would witness wouldn’t anything at all like what they know as Armenian life today. In those days, beating children in school was normal, but then again it was also normal everywhere else including the US. Today we know it is not necessary and can have damaging affects to a child.
Now with this gay issue, if an Armenian feels they are, then all I want to say is, you do not need to bring it up as an “Armenian issue” and advertise it, because it is not. It is a human issue. And when we put it into the perspective of having lost 90% of our country and our population scattered all over the place, it is actually a question of national security. We collectively as Armenians who got a very bad deal in history need to “be fruitful and multiply” before anything else.
Kevork,
Since I am neither gay nor a specific champion of Gays, I’m not really competent to respond on the merits much. However, I strongly advocate that we stick together as Armenians. That means welcoming all self-identified Armenians as family, to whom we will extend our talents, our charity, our hearts, and our ears. If Gay Armenians have stories to tell, we should listen appreciatively to them as brothers and sisters listen. Ditto for all the other Armenians that some think not really Armenian, the oldtime Americans” from Fresno, Beirutahye, Bolsahye, Hamshen, atheists, Partial Armenians, those who cant speak Armenan, the whole enchilada.
Gays don’t choose their orientation for the most part. If they don’t have children, they can still addto the strength of their families and our culture. Lets include all. All.