Last weekend was pretty major for gay rights. On Friday, the US Supreme Court issued a decision granting marriage equality to same-sex couples in all 50 states. Then on Saturday and Sunday millions took part in annual gay pride celebrations all over the world. To mark both events, Facebook offered users the option to apply a rainbow filter to their profile pictures. The site was awash with colour as members of the LGBT community and their allies made the switch. Amongst those to do so were Tamar Kaprelian and Stephanie Topalian from Genealogy – Armenia’s Eurovision 2015 supergroup.
Naturally their actions were met with a lot of positivity, but sadly this began to get lost amidst a torrent of hateful and homophobic comments, forcing Tamar to delete and block users.
Just as an FYI- this is my personal page. NOT my artist account. If you write something rude on this photo, you will be blocked and your comment will be deleted. Too many people have been writing rude, disrespectful, and ignorant things. Everyone is entitled to an opinion. I am entitled to an opinion. I ask you to be respectful of my beliefs and I will be respectful of yours. Also, regardless of what you believe, everyone should be tolerant and respectful of other people and other people’s rights. That’s just called being a good human-being. Personally, I believe in equality. I believe in respecting ALL people on this earth. End of story. #Amen
She shared a similar message on her official fan page. However, Stephanie chose to leave all comments in place. Several simply said “amot” which translates as “shameful”. Others declared they were unfollowing her, while one user even branded her the “anti-christ girl”. Moses, Jesus, Adam and Steve all made cameos below the picture. Stephanie’s brother Chris, who is openly gay, described the reaction as “disheartening”.
Genealogy Interview at Eurovision 2014
But if we learned anything at Eurovision, it’s that the ladies of Genealogy stick together. And sure enough, backup arrived in the shape of Tamar. And she was awesome! Is Stephanie a “homosexual???” asked one user. “Nope. Just a smart person who believes in equality and tolerance”, responded her band mate. In reply to another who wrote “1000000 amot”, she simply said “Stop. Being. Ignorant”. A former fan announced that “It is not negative it is my opinion !! I was urs and Tamars Fan but now sorry !! Ur Christian (i thought ) . God made Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve”. Tamar politely informed him that “We don’t need fans like you Khach, jan. Stephanie and I both believe in equality. And you should be respectful of our opinions just as we are respectful of yours.” SLAY QWEENS!
Of course we shouldn’t ignore all the supportive comments either. Tamar acknowledged many of them with a “thanks” or “agreeeeed”. In fact, following her intervention, there seems to have been a swell in positive comments.
Genealogy meet Conchita Wurst on the Eurovision red carpet
Armenia still has a long-way to come in terms of LGBT rights – homosexuality was only decriminalised in 2003. And y’all will remember the foray surrounding Aram MP3’s “joke” about Conchita Wurst in 2014. While the backlash against the Facebook pictures may pale in comparison to that faced by Russia’s Polina Gagarina after she shared an instagram video with Conchita, it is still raising awareness. We tip our hats to Tamar and Stephanie – every little helps!
Photos: Facebook
@Mario, generalizing all armenians doesn’t make you any better than them and is an ugly thing to do.
They did not had basic manners at all to react badly like that.. But all these armenians want for the rest world to recognize the genocide of Armenians when they are racists themselfs to another socila group of people like homosexuals…So give me a break.. Like it happens with my country & my compatriots Greeks i believe that the best people are the ones that are living outside the country abroad.. They are more open minded,tolerant,kind with better manners.. I wonder how more worse all these people would behave & react in another cases like if it was a relative/friend/known… Read more »
You can express your opinion without attacking people. People disagreeing and rationally discussing why they disagree is one of the most interesting parts of life!
The girls of Genealogy were warranted in blocking those who go too far. They are musicians who have their own thoughts and opinions so listen to their music or not, that is your choice…just be respectful about it.
Religion is the biggest cr@p ever..! Like our world is really just few thousands years old??! Like the almighty god created the world in just 7 days??! Like Eve was created from Adam??! Like there were no other humans in our planet excet Adam & Eve??! And that they found another human species to mate & reproduce??! And that we all of us are product of incestious sexual relationshiops??! Or what about the fact that holy Mary became pregnant of Jesus just with smeling a flower out of nowhere?? Etc…The list goes on & on with countless others idiotic sh*t..… Read more »
Good for them!
A god did not make Adam & Eve. That’s a fairytale.
The Biblus holy book of Christianity = Big fairytale book fool of idiotic big fat lies..
Too many things are defined as sins inside this book but hey…Hypocrites christians only focused on the ‘sin’ of homosexuality & they are fighting us for too long..
But actually it is written nowhere in the biblus that homosexuality is truly a sin anyway..! Nothing was written about homosexuals but they turned it against us shamefully..
Countless homosexuals have been killed because of that holy sacred book called Biblus..
@ Well there is a difference indeed..
Except Mariophobic as you claim to be you are plain simply just homophobic ret@rd as you stated earlier here…So enough with your hypocritical cr@p you d*uchehead..
It’s Adam and Eve so we should do them both tbh.
Yeah it was Adam and Eve, but was them who (a) doomed us to Earth (b) disrespected God’s demand and (c) had a murderer for a child. Are they seriously worth it to be the symbol of heterosexuals? I like learning about religion it’s just that it is so full of s**t.
@Oostenrijk – I’m sure Inga doesn’t have time to go on facebook right now since she got married like two days ago. Vahe…..hmmm…
I wonder if the Armenian and the Ethiopian member of Genealogy approve of Tamar and Stephanie, or if they were trolling there FB pages as well.
Seriously who cares what some idiot kids say, most of the comments are positive.
@Freddi: I’m Mariophobic, not homophobic. There’s a difference.
@Padraig – Seriously? You cited what a 10 year old had to say about this issue? I saw Stephanie’s post and comments and I think people were mostly just divided in the issue. There were a lot of Armenians supporting her and a lot who were not. Anyway, I shared my words of wisdom. People need to stop being so ignorant.
I think people should not make homophobic statements. I am straight, but I like gays, and think they should be respected for who they are 🙂
But seriously…Wiwiblogs seem almost “obsessed” with ANYTHING about esc-singers / gay….why not give it a break? It’s no big deal really! It’s almost becoming as bad as ESCtoday, in that matter…..! No offence, but it’s a rather “worn out” topic!
To be fair they grew up in a different society and have a different mentality. But Armenians and Eastern Europeans in general are conservative. Honestly…didn’t they know this? Didn’t they expect the backlash….? I AM surprised that THEY are surprised and this even made it to the news. I think mentality is not something that can be changed in a day. It takes time and that day will come one day, I am sure. Look at Americans. Less than a century ago how INHUMANLY AND UNEQUALLY they treated black people. They had no civil rights, weren’t allowed to vote, get… Read more »
Well most of these homophobic people are not really anti gay homophobes but just ignorant/naive that were brainwashed by their religion to see homosexuals as abnormal-sinful etc…Give it some time & all these will change their way of thinking & their anti gay beliefs…I can show understanding because even us gays ourselfs used to believe that our homosexuality is sin & not normal as we were taught this way by our religion..
Mostly i do not really blame all these people as the real cause for this is their religion & its harmful effect on them..
Well poor Stefani receive more negative comments compared with Tamar i guess..
One person even called Stefani anti christ girl.. 😛 hehehe LMAO 😀 <3
Really proud of both of them. <3 As much as I disliked our song this year, really happy with the people we sent to Vienna. <3 Stars!
armenian = gay
Well GreAtY 4 them <3 I had the best opinion about them and they are just both lovely <3 I hope that Essai is possibly bisexual or gay <3 I had crush on him <3 He was one of my favorite babes in the Vision of Vienna.. <3 Vahe was very cool as well <3 Mary Jean & Inga were pretty nice too <3 I keep rather positive opinion about all the 6 G-ene-A-olog-Y-sts <3 Armenia's most GreAtY act in our Vision! <3 Well there are too many homophobic armenians but there are too many others armenians that are gay… Read more »
hopefully those wiwibloggs commenters from the last article about gay rights will read Tamar’s post lol, its like those people reeaaallly want to be homophobic, then someone calls them out in it (hint to homophobes: someone calling you out is not the same is silencing you, no one is taking away your right to an opinion. They’re simply letting you know their own opinion on your really terrible and harmful one), then they go all insane and talking about how gay people are terrible and want to take away their rights to an opinion, and gay people are establishing some… Read more »
Vahe and Inga -I hope you will not to this