Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Organization in Kyrgyzstan

Hallo!
I just read what happend to your community center at 8.4.
We are 15 Transgender, Lesbian, Women, Queers living together in caravans and trucks in Berlin – Germany and organising political and cultural events.
We want to send you lots of solidarity!!!

Hello there,i just saw you website and was so interested in how i may help,or be part of your mission. A great friend of mine is moving to Kyrgyzstan, and the last thing i want for him and others there of course, is to be isolated about there sexual preferences. Please reply back and let me know how i can be involved. Thank you

I am amazed at how things here are. I am from the USA and amazingly met someone here and fell in love.

He recently Helped in organizing a bill board for equality and now is know or selected for harrassment from the police. We both were detained a few days ago.

I ask what can I do as a boyfriend to help him as I will return to the states soon.

I want to know if there is some contacts he can meet with to help him in the event something really bad goes wrong.

Sage klein

Dear Labrys,

My name is Philip Abrahamson and I am a student at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts. I am working on a project on gay devotion to icons for a course. For the paper I really need to interview or email as many AXIOS/Dignity members as I can or other gay and lesbian, bisexual, transgender Orthodox and Catholics. My paper will largely reflect the common devotional practices of gay clergy and laity. Below is my abstract for the paper. Any and all help, suggestions, resources, stories, and your own practices would be greatly appreciated. Can anyone in your community contribute stories of their personal practices with icons? Do you have any Sergius and Bacchus icons or other ‘gay’ icons, or know who has made or will make them? I also submitted this abstract to the American Academy of Religion National Conference and it was accepted for their October conference in Atlanta. Since it will be presented at the AAR, there is the chance that it may also be published! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
|
| Gay Devotion to Eastern Orthodox Iconography
| By Philip Abrahamson
| Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology
| in the ThM Program
|
| We all know the stereotypes of gay men’s aesthetics through popular media and television shows such as “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.” But what other manifestations of gay aesthetics exist, and possibly even have ancient histories. How were gay aesthetics and experiences passed down through the generations, especially in intolerant cultures? Before modern materialism, what other modes of transmission existed and how was gay spirituality fed by these expressions of the beautiful? One powerful possibility is the use of icons to communicate and affirm gay experience through devotion to ‘gay’ saints. How was gay aesthetic mediated through Orthodox icons? How may have gay experience been transmitted and understood in ecclesial and liturgical art?
| This paper theorizes on the importance of ‘gay’ iconography in the ancient church, but will concentrate mostly on modern manifestations and devotion to Sts. Sergius and Bacchus and other ‘gay’ icons. It will use traditional concepts of beauty and the meaning of icons from Orthodox sources, such as St. John of Damascus. It then will attempt a synthesis between these traditional formulations and modern gay aesthetics. It will engage both critically and objectively before recounting the devotional practices of contemporary gay Orthodox Christians using iconography and its modern metamorphosis. Since John Boswell’s book Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe, there has been a proliferation of icons of Sts. Sergius and Bacchus, marking growing use of particular icons for Orthodox or Catholic GBLT groups, such as AXIOS. In addition to the use of adelphopoiea rites described by Boswell, this resurgence of icons to interpret and convey Orthodox gay life and experience is !
significant. It
| constitutes no less than a confession of religious truths, since icons are windows to theological truth. By using and proliferating icons of gay saints, communities are transgressing social norms in their societies by communicating their own experiences of male love as deeply seated and deeply felt religious truth. Theologically minded gay men participate in the writing of these icons as well as reading them in private devotion or as part of group liturgical worship. By learning to read and write these icons, gay communities are also developing ways of cultural transmission for future Orthodox gay men.