Yerevan: Some parliamentarians in Armenia have called for burning to death Armenia’s first registered transgender woman, Lilit Martirosyan, for speaking out against discrimination at a session of the National Assembly’s committee on human rights two weeks ago.

Lilit Martirosyan became the first member of her country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community to take to the parliamentary podium.

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 has since sparked a backlash in Armenia, where homosexuality has been decriminalised but discrimination against LGBTI people is rife. There have been anti-LGBTI protests in front of the national Assembly and verbal attacks by some parliamentarians.

The prime minister and the main opposition have tried to blame each other for allowing Martirosyan’s speech. Read more via Deccan Chronicle