by Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska
Dima* takes a sip of beer and his eyes fill with tears. He rarely talks about why he decided to put his activism on hold. He remembers that it was a rainy day in 2017 – the kind of day when residents of usually sunny Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, prefer to stay at home.
He had been planning to visit a local infectious diseases clinic with a man he had been in touch with. This man, a well-known Uzbek musician, had been feeling unwell for a long time, and Dima had promised to support him in getting his first HIV test.
This was part of Dima’s activism. He had been using dating apps to offer support and advice to fellow gay men in Uzbekistan who felt they might be HIV positive – a journey of fear and despair that he’d gone through himself some years before.
But on that particular rainy day, he decided to stay at home and postpone the meeting. One day’s delay, he thought, would change nothing. Dima rang the musician the following morning. But he was no longer there to pick up the phone.
“I know that even if we had met that day, he probably would have died. He was very ill,” Dima says, staring at the pint in front of him. “But I could no longer do this. I had no more strength. Just like that, I reached my limits.”
He requested anonymity for this article for fear of retribution. He is one of the few activists in Uzbekistan encouraging gay men to get HIV tests and supporting them through the process.
Even before COVID-19 social distancing rules, Dima explains, gay Uzbeks did not form public or organised communities. They don’t have gay clubs or organisations that support them like shelters. They don’t gather in large groups in public places.
“Very few are willing to live openly,” says Shukhrat*, another gay man who grew up in the conservative city of Kokand and is now an entrepreneur who lives in Tashkent. “We live in a ‘dictatorship of society’,” he told me.
Article 120: the anti-gay law
Uzbekistan is one of only two post-Soviet countries (the other is Turkmenistan), where male homosexual acts are still illegal. (Lesbian relationships are, however, legal). If caught, gay men face up to three years in prison under the infamous Article 120. While this law is rarely used in practice, rights activists say that criminalisation contributes to anti-LGBT stigma.
Since the current president, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, came to power in late 2016, Uzbekistan has been praised for its liberal reforms, releasing more than 50 high-profile political prisoners and allowing citizens to criticise the government openly. Read more via Open Democracy