Retro and personal: Georgi Minasyan

It was back in the USSR. I was a teenager and on a river cruise summer vacation with my family (Volga-Don, Russia). There was this Armenian guy there. He was approximately my age, may be a year or so older. He was with a big group of either dancers or musicians, all Armenian. This guy started hitting on me. One of his lines was that I look like Georgi Minasyan :)

Georgi Minasyan was an Armenian pop star, very popular in Armenia; also in Russia. His sexuality was an open secret back then. Basically, it was hardly a secret. Everyone knew that he was gay, but no one cared about it. Georgi was popular and loved by Armenian public. He was our celebrity with lots of gossips surrounding his private life.

I do not really think that I looked like Georgi Minasyan back then. May be, just may be I somehow reminded that guy of Georgi Minasyan, but I think - above anything else - it was more of a coded way for him to tell me: ‘My gaydar recognised you’ ;)