NEW INTERVIEW!

Artiom Zavadovsky: "The biggest problem is to reach out the LGTB community and draw their attention and to motivate them to participate in different levels"

When did you decide to become an activist?

I don’t know if it was a very deliberate decision, I hadn’t been involved in any civil activism until I moved to Chisinau, when I was 19.  I started the university and I finally was able to visit the GENDERDOC-M Center, as a beneficiary taking books or watching movies. Then I decided to do something for the organization, because I had a good level of English so I thought that maybe it could be helpful. This is how I became a volunteer of the organization, but I can’t say that I decided to be an activist, so it was a very natural process, being a volunteer and then started to participate in street actions. Now I am the  coordinator of the LGTB Community Development Programme.

What kind of work is being developed at GENDERDOC-M?

GENDERDOC-M center was founded in 1998, it works as a community center for LGTB people and it is a lobby and advocacy rights organization which advocates for the equality of LGTB people in Moldova. It is the only LGTB center in the country, so it combines everything: advocacy group, help care provider... I was employed in LGTB program, local coordinator so I worked mostly with the situation of LGTB people and respect for their rights. So it was a theoretical work combined with the monitoring and documentation of discriminations, violence…  Now my work related mostly with community organizing and carrying out different activities, including seminars, discussion clubs, art labs, information activities. All the activities aimed at raising visibility of LGTB people targeting general population… so this program is focused on empowering LGTB people in becoming more active in defending their own rights, to decrease the level of homophobia and transphobia and, actually, on motivating them to become those voices that they want to hear and, of course, by doing this, raise awareness of LGTB issues in Moldovan general society.

How many people are involved?

We are 9 staff members and we have volunteers. We also have members of the organization but not that many…around 40 and around 2000 beneficiaries, people who benefit from the services the organization provides.

Do you have any difficulties?

The biggest problem is to reach out the LGTB community and draw their attention and to motivate them to participate in different levels, because I don’t know why but LGTB community in Moldova is not engaged in the community development neither interested in receiving information from the ones who have it. There can be different reasons for this: maybe they’re not interested, they might be afraid to do this or some other reasons…I do not face any problems doing my work as well as my colleagues because we are a registered organization and we are legal according to the current legislation.  There are some anti-gay groups that tried to constrict our activity… for example, in September they attacked our office with eggs without having any legal persecution from the authority but we are subjected to some kind of threats or violence from antigay groups.

You know who they are?

Yes, they’re groups who share neonazi ideology and are inspired by similar movements in Russia.

Do you have any publications?

We publish different materials: books, reports, broachers for LGTB people, professionals and different audiences… We also have a magazine quarterly called Zerkalo (means mirror) which is about LGTB news in Moldova and abroad… it is distributed for free.

Can you tell us something about the actual situation of LGTB community in Moldova?

There is no such understanding of LGTB people as a community, because they’re not engaged in the communitarian organization neither in gathering together under common goals. Transgenders are the most invisible part of the community and they do not advocate for their rights, there is no transactivism in Moldova. Gays and lesbians are very different from one person to another but generally speaking they’re under pressure of this society’s attitude that doesn´t allow them to come out and show their identities.

Most of gays and lesbians in Moldova have a kind of double life when they’re themselves with friends they maybe also have relationships but, on the other hand, they’re forced to lie and hide to the rest of the people whom they interact with. This situation creates a lot of problems, because they kind of internalize homophobia that doesn’t allow them to come out. Then the society is very homophobic because they don’t know gay and lesbians people who are out and they’re part of their families.  This creates problems when gays and lesbians face discrimination or violence if their identities are known or disclosed or they’re suspected to be gay or lesbians and then they are afraid to report this to the police or any other authorities, because they’re afraid of the police’s attitude. In many cases they do not report this violence. Also there is a vicious circle when people don’t come out, because the society doesn’t accept them.

So, are you trying to create a community feeling to be stronger?

Yes, I don’t know if there is a community feeling or you have to create one, because this initiatives should come from the bottom to the top. What we want to do is to provide information and to encourage them to be who they are, to be able to defend their own rights… because from our experience, in most of the cases gays and lesbians do not know much about what rights they have, in which situations they can be protected and what in general they should be aware of.

Differences between the first pride parade and the last one in 2014?

There is a change, the first festival was unknown, more like underground celebration which wasn’t that visible in the society… What became more visible in the society were the parades that took place in 2013 and 2014 which brought a big visibility also to the festival. Previously the festivals were attended by the community members.  In the last years we noticed that there were not the most popular activities from the center, the most popular are parties or movie screening, for example… Then we decided to shift the target audience of the festival and to make the general society the target audience of the festival. That is why in recent years more and more activities are open to a more general public but there are still some activities that are private or closed.  Somehow the attitude has changed: the situation is better now. Another topic is the quality of the debates, that is really poor, because there is a lot of homophobia and transphobia but nevertheless the subject is arising in the society and every march and festival the attitudes shift to more open-minded.

So, do you think people are more open to the diversity nowadays?

It’s hard to estimate how open they are but suddenly they become less aggressive… This is also due to political change in the country. Since we are in this European integration process the use of political matters or scapegoating of LGTB people have decreased. For this reason, now LGTB issues are not exploited in politics in order to shift the public´s attention from the real government’s problems, like the invented ones that are happening in Russia.

Also, the cover by media of LGTB issues has changed significantly: if before the media were reflecting on LGTB issues in a very outrageous and stereotypical way, using very provocative pictures, now they are doing it in a more balanced way, trying to use local footage or symbolic pictures rather than scandalous and provocative pictures.

Is there any kind of relation between politics and LGTB community?

Even pro-european parties, which are supposed to take care of LGTB agenda, are not really addressing LGTB people… the only thing that they’re ready to do is to promote a general equality in the society, without saying LGTB or without discuss specific problems and how they can be solved. There is no political will to do this, right now we are waiting for the elections so we don’t know which kind of policy will get into the parliament, if it will be better, the same or worst, so we don’t know what to expect. Only after the elections we will be able to see what improved. Due to the huge Russian influence in Moldova, it is deteriorating our situation because we share the same media and cultural space, political issues, and, of course there are some pro-Russia political parties that use homophobia to distinguish themselves from the parties that are advocating for European integration.

Regarding the legal framework, is there a proper legislation?

There are laws existing in Moldova, but they cannot be applied to LGTB people due to the fact that they are not applied, as it happens with the law enforcement. We have an antidiscrimination law and some other laws that are universals. Otherwise, we don’t have a hate crime legislation which specifically targets sexual and gender identity. Nevertheless we have some hate crime legislation that protects social, religious and ethnic groups. So, when someone reports some hate crime to the police office, they don’t want to verify it as a hate crime because they claim that LGTB people do not represent a social group that can be protected by this specific law. That is why we are working on improving the actual legislation and we want to introduce an amendment in the current criminal court that will be also applying to LGTB people. As a result, if a crime were committed on the ground of sexual orientation or gender identity it has to be classified as an aggravating circumstance.

Do you agree with the statement ‘Nothing seems to change’ when talking about laws implementation?

It is all about society attitudes: it is just one thing to adopt a law, the other thing is to implement it and, then, the third thing is to actually educate the society about these laws and how they work. But usually in our countries, where the change comes from the top to the bottom, it is really hard to convince members of parliament to adopt that particular law to change the situation, because they are a part of the same society, they represent the same people and they do not want to take unpopular decisions that would make them lose their votes. And if they adopt such unpopular laws it is not because they really want to improve the situation, but due to the fact that they want to receive money from some institutions. So, when it comes to actual society, people’s attitudes do not change because of some laws are adopted, people’s attitudes change when these laws are applied. The better they are applied, the more people realize that actually their behavior should change, otherwise there will be sanction for it. Legal framework is very important, but it will not change anything if it is not properly applied, so we have to distinguish between good legislation and implementation by the executive authorities and if there is no political will to do this, no matter how good the laws are, they will not work and there will be not any change.

Do you carry out any kind of Activities for the society in general?

Our public activities are aimed to raise awareness in the society. Sometimes, it is really hard because even if you organize a movie screening, the room is empty. Although it seems an interesting topic for the society but then they won’t come. In order to do this work with the society it is difficult because people are so different and you have to target your activities to a specific fragment of the society.

 We work with university students about gender identity and sexual orientation  because they are future professionals so they are people who must know this information in order to provide better services and treat people better. We also work with journalists, medical professionals, lawyers, police and this kind of target in a very particular way. In the society it is really hard because it is so different and diverse but when we do public events we try to make them as open as possible to a general public.

Are you developing project outside Chisinau?

We work mostly in Chisinau. We have groups in Balti and Tiraspol… sometimes we organize seminars outside Chisinau… there is no audience in villages for example… how open they will be to receive this information? Sometimes, trough other organization we try to convey our message, putting it into the mainstream human rights perspective and then participate in common activities with other organizations which are aimed to change small villages’ mentality.  We talk about human rights in general, diversity in general, because LGTB issues are a taboo, especially if you work with high school students, so you need a way to convey the message in other words.

So, is there a big difference between Chisinau and the rest of Moldova?

Yes, Chisinau is a big city so it’s different. Many people choose to come here to live.

Which is the main obstacle to achieve an equal society?

The mentality is quite steady; it doesn’t change because there are no social or educational programs to achieve this. The education system is very conservative, it lacks several things:  human rights approach, sexual education, among others. Nobody talks about this and if you don’t talk about those topics with children, they will grow up perpetrating the previous mentality. According to this, the biggest difficulty is about the mentality: in order to change it you have to change the system, the educational system and adopt the right approach to every single program (social, political, etc.) existing in the country. However, since there is no political will it is quite impossible to make a change.

Do you consider some institutions an obstacle?

Church is the biggest transmitter of homophobia in the country. It is the most trusted institution in the country and the church manipulates people’s trust. The church institutions is very much like a business.

Is Russia affecting the mentality here?

Yes, people in Moldova watch Russian TV programs, so they will see the same information as in Russia, the same anti homosexual propaganda and they share the same point of view.

In your opinion, what is the future for LGTB community?

I don’t know we need to wait for the elections.

Are there more LGTB organizations in Moldova?

No, GENDERDOC-M is the only one.

Are you also working with other topics? Like, for example, feminism?

Yes, we’re trying to implement this aspect… there are women organizations in Moldova but they are not feminist…

Speaking about women discrimination, is there a big difference between men and women in the work field?

There is discrimination in works places or discriminatory announcement or they might be not that big difference about the salary, but woman are disadvantaged when they get pregnant and many employers see it as a threat and they fire them. Finally, the society attitude is very conservative, regarding women as the ones who should stay at home and cook. We want to bring the topic of inequality of men and women and how misogyny affects LGTB people too, because homophobia also derives from the misogynistic attitude.

What is the current situation in former soviet republics?

It’s much worse. I think the situation in Moldova is closer to the one in the Balkans, I think we are a little bit further in our development in terms of LGTB quality than other former soviet republics… Belarus: dictatorship, Russia: very bad, Ukraine: chaos, Azerbaijan: dictatorship, Armenia: Russia satellite, Georgia: laws are good but the situation is horrible, Kurdistan: now they’re debating the adoption of anti-propaganda laws, Russia satellite Kazakhstan: dictatorship. Transnistria is de facto a different country, the LGTB there are completely invisible, they get in groups but in very private meetings, what they mostly do is coming to Chisinau.  

Interview by Ruben Pulido and Francesco Brusa

More information:

http://www.gdm.md/http://www.gdm.md/