Gay Armenian in LA committed suicide after being forced into marriage

I am very angered and very saddened. News on suicide committed by young gay Armenian guy in LA (Los Angeles, US) after being forced into marriage proves once more that Armenian society - whether in Armenia or Diaspora - with its ‘traditional values’, intolerance and homophobia is responsible for his death.

Thanks to his friend, we learned about this story. How many similar cases pass hidden?!

I ask Armenian bloggers, media representatives, anyone who has links with local (both in Armenia and Diaspora) and international media to disseminate this story as widely as possible. Time to speak up. Enough is enough! We should prevent similar tragedies from happening in future.

I tried to summarise what is known so far about this guy based on PINK Armenia press release and comments in Yesoudo: LGBT discussion group.

A few days ago a young gay Armenian in LA committed suicide... He was 22 years old. The stress of being gay was too hard for him to handle. He was forced to get married with an Armenian girl to cover up his sexuality... He came out to his family and they forced him to marry a girl to keep up appearances... and sadly 3 months into the marriage . . . he couldn’t take it anymore... he was under a lot of stress from his family and the general stress that the Armenian community brings to the table about homosexuality...

Here is what his friend has to say:

[He was] an amazing friend of mine… we loved him dearly... he was young, smart and handsome... god I’m going to miss him...
REST IN PEACE MY GOOD FRIEND WE WILL MISS YOU.

What is wrong with Armenians how can we keep letting this happen! This isn’t right, this isn’t fair! The sad part is no one mentions that he did it because he was gay! He even wrote it in his suicide note and no one mentions it! How many Armenians are we going to lose like this!

For more details - see Unzipped: Gay Armenia