»» An unidentified group of young people attacked 3 trans women in the centre of Yerevan in August
2016 by assaulting them physically and psychologically. The victims didn’t file a report on the
attack with the police because of the lack of trust in officials. The victims told us that they were
attacked because they were “identified as homosexuals”. They have been told “gays don’t have
a place in this holy country and should be burned in the middle of the day in the centre of the
Republic Square”. They went to the hospital on the same day with the support of MSM Armenia
and Trans Yerevan initiative to make sure the incident was documented.
»» 2 trans sex workers in August, 4 in September, 5 in October, and 7 in November 2016 were
attacked and beaten in one of the cruising parks in Yerevan. Unfortunately, this is a common
issue in cruising areas and it happens every month, especially in the evenings. As much as
we speak up about it, the number of incidents still increase. All of these incidents happened
because of (potential) clients who were transphobic (although society in general identifies trans
people as homosexuals). Usually, they get angry when they are refused services by a sex worker.
The victims didn’t want to report the incidents to the police because of a lack of trust, and due
to the fact that they would have to tell the authorities that they are a sex workers, which would
result in a fine.
»» Between September and December 2016, 32 trans people (25 trans women, 22 of whom were
sex workers, plus 7 trans men) reported threats that they received on dating apps and websites
such as Grindr, Hornet, Mamba, Odnoklasniki, and Badoo.