LGBT/HIV situation in Armenia Ashot Gevorgyan

Legal situation Homosexuality has been legal in Armenia since 2003. Same-sex marriage and civil unions are not legal in Armenia and the Constitution limits marriage to opposite-sex couples Armenia does not allow same-sex couples to adopt children and there is debate surrounding such legislation. Even though Armenia was the first nation in the region to endorse the UN declaration on sexual orientation and gender identity in December 2008, as of 2017, there is no legislation protecting LGBT persons from discrimination Internal defense ministry decree effectively bans gay men from serving in the armed forces. In practice, gays are marked as "mentally ill" and sent to a psychiatrist Forced sterilization for trans people

Public Acceptance

Institutional phobia Although public schools at primary and post-primary levels are state- sponsored, both the curricula taught and the ethos of those schools are heavily influenced by the outlook of the Armenian Apostolic Church; from a very young age children become aware of the taboo attached to LGBT persons. Sex education is at the discretion of the school and is a voluntary service, and education on sexual diversity or sexual minorities is non-existent the word ‘homosexual’ used negatively has frequently been used in attacks on political opponents, even in the National Assembly Armenian prisons are still chaotic and particularly cruel places for LGBT people. gay men and trans people are held in separate cells in order to ensure their personal safety and other inmates refused contact with them

Media Coverage Whenever a LGBT person is referred to in the media in Armenia, it is almost invariably as the object of some form of joke, irony, or as someone who is sick and/or morally deranged. Only couple of photographs of members of the LGBT community are known to have been published, and if an image is used it is generally of an erotic nature, downloaded from the internet. Trans people are covered by media as homosexual sex workers only Censorship

STI/HIV/AIDS

Discrimination, harassment and violence