16 August, Washington, DC: Belarusian gay activist Viachaslau BORTNIK joined about twenty people at the protest organized by the civic initiative Poglyad (“Vision”) in front of the Belarusian Embassy in Washington, DC.

Viachaslau held in his hands self-made poster with a portrait of the last European dictator and writing “Lukashenko – Queen of Homophobia”.

”Demonstrations have been held in Belarus and throughout Europe and the U.S. on the 16th of every month since last September, the sixth anniversary of the 1999 disappearance and presumed murder of opposition leaders, but they have never featured intimidation of LGBT people before. So I decided to bring this issue to the attention of our diplomats and foreign community,” explained Viachaslau Bortnik.

The “16” symbol has become synonymous with the pro-democracy movement and lighting of candles on that date.

“I follow the developments of the situation with expulsion of Latvian ambassador from Belarus on pretext of his sexual orientation. I’ve been in Belarus several times, and it’s absolutely insane what is going on there,” said Henry W. Johnson II, founder and chief coordinator Poglyad – DC based civic initiative to support democracy in Belarus.

”With over nine months of demonstrations having been undertaken here in Washington, we encourage those who can come out and join us once again in reminding the world that we have not given up our desires for freedom in Belarus. Solidarity protests are to be held again on September 16,” activist said.

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Viachaslau I. Bortnik
Chair
Amnesty International Belarus