Right Side Human Rights Defender NGO strongly condemns and draws professional and public attention to the post of Tehmina Vardanyan, an independent politician, and a member of the “Luys” alliance of the Yerevan Council of Elders, where she uses wrong terminology referring to transgender people, and which contains transphobia, homophobia, stigma and discrimination. In particular, after the brutal murder of a trans woman on August 20, in her Facebook post, Tehmina Vardanyan called transgender people “heterogeneous”, the alarm about the murder “bluster“, the human rights defender organization “an NGO with heterogeneous and mutilated feelings”, heterosexual people “people with normal sexual orientation”, and at the end of the post she stated that “in fact, we, the “naturals”, are becoming the most defenseless, soon I will open an NGO to protect people with normal sexual orientation.”

It is unacceptable for a politician engaged in public activity not only to have such misconceptions about gender issues, but also to express on the public platform her transphobic, homophobic, and discriminatory views, that hide apparent violence and discrimination against vulnerable groups, and have an impact on public perception. We call on Tehmina Vardanyan to remove her post, avoid using incorrect terminology in the future, and refrain from an approach that conceals discrimination and violence against Trans LGBIQ people, and ignores the problems.

It should also be noted that in 2018 Tehmina Vardanyan graduated from the Institute of Liberal Politics NGO, which aims to contribute to the formation of a human-centered society and which has published the “Hate speech on media platforms, social networks, and television broadcast” manual this year. We expect the Institute of Liberal Politics NGO and other public organizations to join our call and issue a statement urging the prevention of hate speech, discrimination, and the perpetuation of a climate of impunity against LGBTIQ people.

August 30, 2023 Armenia, Yerevan