When 2 Armenians battle election in California, and there is homophobia involved, Armenian community loses

Glendale News Press reports that the election took place last Tuesday to fill a vacant seat for the 43rd Assembly District in California, which includes most of Glendale, Burbank and parts of Los Angeles. Title of the report says it all: “Armenian candidates split vote”.

[...] at the headquarters of Democrats Nayiri Nahabedian and Chahe Keuroghelian, the strategy was clearly different. Campaign workers were focused on targeting one of the region’s largest voting bases — Armenian Americans, who are estimated to comprise about 30% of registered voters in the district, according to campaign workers.

Campaign workers for Nahabedian and Keuroghelian were primarily reaching out to Armenian residents over the phone, encouraging prospective voters to go to the polls. [...]

Still, the two candidates of Armenian descent ended up at the bottom of the polls, with Nahabedian winning 22% of votes and Keuroghelian taking about 14%. Ramani and Gatto, who made few efforts to reach out specifically to Armenian voters, combined to earn nearly two-thirds of all votes cast.

Garen Yegparian shares more insight on what was going on behind the scene. Apparently, homophobia might have played the role too. Below are selected exrtacts, via Asbarez:

"As always, the campaign for California’s 43rd Assembly District seat produced its share of interesting stories, from the heartwarming and inspiring to the weird and lurid. [...]

I’ve saved strangest for last, and this is only a sampling.  During the course of the campaign, I heard, admittedly second-hand, that some TV commentators were accusing Nayiri of supporting bestiality.  I suppose in their “minds” this fits in with her “unforgiveable” support of gay rights.  But the best one of these is the claim that Nayiri would eliminate the words “mother” and “father”.  This lulu I heard first hand when a caller asked me about it during the call-in time of an Armenian TV show, on which I was that day’s guest.  Then, on Election Day, in speaking to a poll worker at the first polling place I went to (small problem of signage directing people to the entrance had to be solved) I learned that the same issue was raised at an SEIU (one of the unions supporting Nayiri) meeting.  An Armenian woman had announced that she wouldn’t vote for Nayiri because she’d eliminated “mother” and “father” from the textbooks!  So this wasn’t just some operative spreading the word.  People ACTUALLY BELIEVED this stuff, else they’d never repeat it.  It’s fascinating, how out of touch with reality some people can be.

Let’s all work towards a more unified and saner community approach to future elections."

The Day of Silence - Glendale - Armenian Diaspora

*via Glendale News Press

Support in silence

(Raul Roa/News-Press)

Glendale High students spend lunch period protesting hate.

By Max Zimbert

Published: Last Updated Friday, April 16, 2010 10:09 PM PDT

About two dozen Glendale High School students and teachers were taking their seats Friday to protest prejudice and harassment of all types, when a student a few yards away repeatedly yelled a derogatory term for homosexuals.

The incident occurred as students handed out small notices that said they muted themselves to represent the unheard victims of discrimination and name-calling as part of the national Day of Silence. Participating students kept silent all day and wrote their responses to questions.

“It’s more of a shock that he said it out loud,” wrote Vahe Gabri, a senior. “You will hear it, but as a whisper when they pass you or when no one is around.”

Punishment for harassment or discrimination is typically a suspension, administrators said.

“It’s 2010, but you still hear, see and witness acts of discrimination toward a group,” Principal Deb Rinder said. “Any time there’s something new or different or whatever, it requires dialogue and education, because in my opinion, knowledge is power.”

Many of the participating students were members of the Gay-Straight Alliance, a student club that they say is a safe place.

“I love it,” sophomore Isaac Espinosa wrote. “You make new friends, family and new adventures.”

Gay-straight alliances are controversial at Glendale Unified’s high schools. In 2008, parents spoke against the clubs at a school board meeting, saying administrators had no right to let the clubs exist. But those arguments failed to get traction with district officials who said students had the 1st Amendment right to organize.

Students sat silently in a circle Friday in the middle of the school quad. Some held hands and embraced, while others wrote and passed notes.

“We are here to, in short, battle all hate,” wrote Kit Romire, a senior and club president. “This year, homophobia really hit.”

Christa Bretz, the faculty advisor to the school club, sent out notices Wednesday, informing the campus community of the day and its intent. She did so deliberately, she said, to avoid counter protests.

“It gives less time for conflict and controversy, but less time for people to become aware of it and participate in it,” she said.

Freshmen Savanna Asadoorian and Sose Abraamyan said Glendale High students are tolerant, and the school is a safe place to learn. Harassment or name calling stems from ignorance, Savanna said.

“It’s not intentionally to hurt anyone,” she said.

But students got the alliance’s message, Sose said. And teacher participation would foster conversations about respect and tolerance, said David Spiegel, a teacher.

“Kids ask, ‘Why were you there?’” he said. “There’ll be a lot of discussions next period . . . and I think that’s where a lot of growth happens.”

LA, Glendale hate crime report: decrease but problem remains - Armenians, Jews, gays targeted in 2008

Hate crimes decrease
Race motivated most in county, followed by sexual orientation and religion
By Veronica Rocha
November 20, 2009

Glendale News Press

LOS ANGELES — Religious hate crimes, including a tagging incident at Glendale’s St. Peter Armenian Church, increased last year throughout Los Angeles County, according to a county report released Thursday.

Religion was the basis for third-largest group of hate crimes reported in Los Angeles County in 2008, according to the county’s Commission on Human Relations annual report. Hate crimes based on a person’s race or sexual orientation made up the largest and second-largest groups, respectively.

“Hate doesn’t have to lead to more hate,” said Robin Toma, the commission’s executive director.

Hate crimes throughout the county that were motivated by religion increased from 105 in 2007 to 120 in 2008, according to the report.

In the area that includes Glendale, La Crescenta, La Cañada Flintridge and Burbank, there were 12 hate crimes last year. That was a steep drop from the 31 that occurred in 2007, a 61% decrease, said Marshall Wong, who helped author the commission’s report.

Race-based hate crimes in Glendale dropped from 25 in 2007 to seven last year. Sexual orientation and disability-based hate crimes also decreased, he said.

Hate-related aggravated assaults dropped from 13 in 2007 to zero in 2008, Wong said.

In Glendale, the race most discriminated against were Jews last year, with Armenians not far behind, with four and three hate crimes suffered, respectively.

The greatest percentage of religious hate crimes were vandalism, followed by intimidation. Most religious hate crimes occurred at homes and religious sites.

The only hate crime reported in 2008 in Glendale was tagging that was spray painted onto St. Peter Armenian Church, Sgt. Tim Feeley said.

A 2-foot-by-2-foot crescent and star was spray-painted on a wall outside the church, which police said was meant to intimidate Armenians by invoking the Turkish flag.

The modern Republic of Turkey has refused to recognize the Armenian Genocide in which 1.5 million Armenians were killed between 1915 and 1918 at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.

Overall, hate crimes decreased in Glendale, from eight in 2007 to one in 2008.

“These types of crimes are so personal,” Feeley said.

The city doesn’t have any known hate groups that target residents based on their race, gender sexual orientation or religion, he said.

Glendale, once a bastion for white supremacy groups like the Ku Klux Klan, has changed dramatically as its population has become more diverse, officials said.

“I think Glendale has become a lot more open than in the past,” Feeley said. “We are far more diverse than we used to be. I think initially there was a reluctance to accept the change that Glendale was going through.”

Many residents, he said, have accepted Glendale’s diverse landscape.

“I think people are getting along a little bit better,” he said. “I think it’s really fortunate when you look at Glendale being the third-largest city in L.A. to only have one hate crime is really significant. It’s a testament to the residents that are getting along.”

Hate crimes against Armenians, blacks, whites, Asians, Middle-Easterners and transgender people decreased in 2008, according to the Commission on Human Relations report.

Hate crimes overall declined from 763 in 2007 to 728 in 2008 in Los Angeles County.

But the annual tally was the second largest since 2002, Toma said.

Hate crimes in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s jurisdictions dropped 25%, Sheriff Lee Baca said.

But crimes motivated by hate, especially ones committed by gangs, continue to exist.

“This is always troubling,” Baca said. “We want to have none of this to happen because all people are entitled to exercise who they are under the spirit of the American constitution.”

Armenian gay rights organisation in LA - GALAS, blasts Glendale Armenian American homophobia

AGLA NY reports on a welcome move by Armenian gay rights organisation in LA - GALAS, which publicly stood up against homophobia within the local Armenian community effectively breaking the usual pattern of "what has until now been the overwhelming silence to homophobia and heterosexism in the Armenian American community":

Recent “Day of Silence” at Glendale’s Hoover High School was an act of unity with schools across the country to call attention to how gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth are “silenced” by harassment and bullying in schools. The event took place on April 25 and many prominent members of Glendale, including Glendale News Press Armenian American columnist Patrick Azadian, supported the action.

Unfortunately some people, including many Armenian Americans, objected to the protest and one confused individual named Martik Abramian wrote a letter to the Glendale News Press newspaper saying:

Don’t be fooled by the Day of Silence, which is a cover-up and in reality is to promote homosexuality. We need to have a day of awareness instead of a Day of Silence and teach students about the dangers of homosexual life and its destructive consequences.

[...]

In today’s Glendale News Press, the president of the Gay & Lesbian Armenian Society (GALAS) in Los Angeles, California, Haig Boyajian, takes to task the usually unchallenged Armenian American homophobia of Martik Abramian and others (for instance Naira Khachatrian as quoted in an article by Dan Kimber). GALAS’ response was powerful and here’s an excerpt:

We want to state unequivocally that the handful of Armenian parents who were vitriolic in their opposition to the Day of Silence do not represent the entire Armenian community. The members of the Gay and Lesbian Armenian Society of Los Angeles and our many supportive family members and friends belong to the Glendale and Los Angeles Armenian communities, and we all believe that there can be no tolerance for bullying and harassment of any student, regardless of his or her sexual orientation.

We condemn the homophobic comments that were aired on a recent Armenian television program. They were irresponsible since such speech can cause disastrous consequences for children, who might go so far as to commit suicide or substance abuse as a result of rejection from their families.

The Gay and Lesbian Armenian Society of Los Angeles is saddened to see that some Armenians are unable to see the parallels between racial and sexual orientation discrimination. We come from a culture that is, sadly, too familiar with what can happen when one group is ostracized and discriminated against. However, we have hope for the future that springs from the students who courageously organized and participated in the Day of Silence event, especially given the sometimes hostile response it has received in the community. And, we are proud and encouraged that some of the participants in Day of Silence were Armenian.

We call upon our fellow Armenian brothers and sisters to support tolerance, the local school districts, and most importantly our children. We must all raise our voices against hate and misunderstanding and support valuable programs like Day of Silence that can make a positive difference.

*source - AGLA NY blog