From my side, apart from sharing the blog post on FB and Twitter, and tweeting @Bayer and @BayerHealthCare, I contacted directly Bayer via their general maildesk contact system, as well as writing an email to the head of media relations Günter Forneck.
Although I did not receive replies from my email communication, I received a message from Bayer Healthcare via Twitter, explaining their position:
Dear Mika, we have seen your Tweets you published earlier this week.
Bayer condemns any behavior that discriminates against particular groups for example on ground of race and ethnic origin, color, nationality, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, political affiliation.
Bayer does not sponsor the Armenian Association of Young Doctors.
Bayer’s support to the medical conference “Health-related issues of quality of life” in Erevan, 5-7 November 2015, was triggered by its partnership with the Armenian Anti-ageing Medical Association, one of the co-organisers of the conference.
Similar messages were received by others who contacted Bayer Healthcare re this issue.
While I was glad to receive a quick reply from the Bayer Healthcare distancing themselves from the Armenian Association of Young Doctors, and reaffirming their commitment to non-discrimination, I was not happy that these were done via private messages only, i.e. no public statement or press release by Bayer to make their stance firm and public.
My reply to them followed shortly:
Thank you for clarifications about your sponsorship of the conference and for re-affirming your stance against discrimination. I am writing to you on behalf of a group of LGBT activists and allies. I am glad to know that you do not sponsor directly the Armenian Association of Young Doctors. However, your support for the conference, even if via your partnership with the Armenian Anti-aging Medical Association, means that you sponsor an event which include organisation headed by a virulent homophobe. This was covered in social and other media, including the Armenian media outlet Epress.am. The Armenian Association of Young Doctors widely uses the fact of your sponsorship for their PR purposes (example). I would therefore like to ask you to issue a public press release to clarify the situation and your stance. Thank you in advance.
Unfortunately, despite repeated communications and twitter exchanges, I have yet to receive any public statement by Bayer Healthcare.
It is exactly because of such lack of firm stance that homophobes are able to use sponsorship from organisations like Bayer for their PR purposes, by effectively getting rewarded for spreading hate.
As I mentioned in my reply above, support for the conference, even if via partnership with another co-organiser, in the absence of public statement to clarify their stance, means that Bayer Healthcare sponsors an event which is co-organised by a virulent homophobe. As a consequence, many activists now question a non-discrimination commitment by Bayer, while number of young doctors in Armenia are unable to participate in the conference due to virulent homophobia by one of its co-organisers.
This tweet by @hambvart is very telling, indeed:
As young doctor I can't be @ @BayerHealthCare-sponsored conference cause I'm #gay & coorganizer calls 2 burn faggots http://gayarmenia.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/president-of-armenian-association-of.html
Many on Twitter and elsewhere expressed their outrage. Selected examples below:
@Khaghaghordyan:
@unzippedblog @BayerHealthCare really an appalling case of bigotry. Looking forward to read both the blog post and the statement
@GoldenTent:
@unzippedblog @VismundCygnus1 @Bayer @BayerHealthCare This doctor should not only not be rewarded but should lose his license
@GArmasCardona:
Young #Armenia|n doctor says "they [#gay|s] should be burnt," must not know about the Hippocratic Oath.
@CrazyPsyKO:
@KarenaAv This is incitement, plain and simple. Surely some law must cover it.
@VismundCygnus1 (here and here):
@GoldenTent @unzippedblog @Bayer @BayerHealthCare yep raises big questions. What if a client unknowingly goes for him for treatment and is a homosexual, wat will he do? Kill d client?! I agree this person cant be a doctor anymore
@KarenaAv:
@VismundCygnus1 @unzippedblog @Bayer @BayerHealthCare I expect Bayer to condemn this & withdraw its support. People are watching.
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1 comment:
Extract from Open Democracy investigation:
Revealed: US-funded website spreading COVID misinformation in Armenia.
“US taxpayer money has funded a controversial health news website in Armenia that is spreading “incredibly dangerous” COVID-19 misinformation, openDemocracy can reveal.
Public health experts in the US and Armenia denounced this content – which includes claims that vaccines currently being developed are actually “biological weapons”.
The website, Medmedia.am, was launched in 2019 – amid a mushrooming of new ultra-conservative groups following Armenia’s 2018 ‘velvet revolution’ – by an NGO led by a locally well-known doctor with anti-LGBT views and far-right connections.”
“The NGO that received the US embassy grant, and launched Medmedia.am, is called the Armenian Association of Young Doctors. It was founded by a young urologist, Gevorg Grigoryan.
Last year, he claimed, incorrectly, that the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine (which, among other things, protects women from cervical cancer) is intended for gay people – and that its side effects are riskier than cancer rates.
On social media, he has also previously said that “gays should be burnt and in a public place” and that he will “always be one of those who fight against homosexuality”.
Grigoryan is connected to local far-right activists too. Recently, he launched a new NGO whose co-founders include a member of the far-right movement VETO that was established last year following the 2018 ‘velvet revolution’.
In 2019, Grigoryan also founded the Armenian National Health Council, which has also campaigned against the HPV vaccine and appealed to citizens to oppose its “spread”.
This council has benefited from foreign funding as well. It was set up with money from a European Union-funded project that said it aimed to unite Armenian civil society organisations and enhance their influence over the public policy process.”
Also from The Guardian:
US government is funding website spreading Covid-19 disinformation.
“Grigoryan said his past anti-LGBT statements, including one that said he would “always fight against gays,” had been misinterpreted and were prompted by specific cases of “anti-social behaviour.” Asked about a Facebook post from 2014 in which he wrote that “gays should be burnt and in a public place”, he said that the post was a reference to the film Pulp Fiction and was meant as a joke.”
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