Gays and Lesbians in Belarus want to leave
More than a half of gays and lesbians in Belarus want to leave their country
About a half of visitors of Gay.by who were participating in the survey on the topic «Have you ever thought of leaving Belarus because of homophobia?» have answered yes. Moreover a fifth of participants are ready to do so at the first opportunity. In all there were 408 people who took part in the survey.
If to compare this result with the all-Belarus research on the wish to leave the country conducted by the Sociometrical Laboratory “NOVAK” the situation with gay minorities greatly differs from all the immigration wishers.
According to the “NOVAK” research about 40% of youth and unemployed wish to leave Belarus (taking all the population this index is twice lower). 14,7% of unemployed found it difficult to answer if they wished to leave the country . This means that leaving Belarus could be a possible variant for them . And 12,5% simply don’t have money for immigration.
If we take gay and lesbian community and the wish the leave the country because of homophobia we will see the following situation:
56% want to leave the country (21% of them will do at the first possibility)
9% have already left the country
26% won’t leave the country, and 9% consider that there is no homophobia in Belarus .
If we make a rough calculation we can see that 65% want or have already left the country and 35% don’t want to leave.
The main reason why the representatives of gay and lesbian community want to leave the country is the social disapproval of homosexual relations, violence against gays and lesbians, the absence of social defense, law basis, civilized recreation sector, and also the fear of losing the job if the fact of being a homosexual will be revealed to the authorities. 56% of gays and lesbians face the facts of homophobia at work while 13% of them face it regularly.
The main destinations that are chosen by Belarusians for leaving are the USA and the countries of Western Europe .
This story is located at: http://ilga.org/ilga/en/countries/WORLD/Your%20Stories
LGBT IMMIGRATION STORIES 
Well, u know.. am from Moldova! Yeah, and there we have homophobia too! Donno how it is in Belarus, but as far as I’ve read here and there, it’s much more worsen than in Russia or some parts of it.
Also, have a close friend that’s Belorussian and lives currently in Berlin. From what he’ve told me, the gay situation there is awful! U even can’t walk relaxed on the streets durrin’ the night and sometimes durrin’ the day even.
Hope u guys, will solve it somehow. Am not tellin’ u to leave your country, but at least try to get a better life. If security doesn’t exist, then there’s no reason to stay there.
Kiss ya all,
Vlad.
Vlad
March 14, 2010