Rainbow flags on Women's Day
A women's march in Bishkek in 2019 became Central Asia's first Pride and unleashed a storm of outrage.
On 8 March 2019, around four hundred people marched through the centre of Bishkek. The march for International Women's Day called for women's rights and "equality for all". Some participants carried rainbow flags. That was enough to throw Kyrgyzstan into uproar.
Many afterwards described the peaceful procession as Central Asia's first Pride march. In parliament, the reactions were fierce. MP Jyldyz Musabekova called on Facebook for the queer participants to be beaten up and warned in a debate that the country would otherwise become a "Gayistan". A colleague felt that Kyrgyzstan had embarrassed itself in front of its neighbours. The nationalist group Kyrk Choro, the "Forty Warriors", threatened organisers and demanded the mayor's resignation. Only around thirty people came to its counter-rally outside parliament, however.
Human rights activists pushed back. Lesbian and trans women were naturally part of the women's movement, said the journalist Bektour Iskender, who had marched himself. Queer people had taken part before; it was just that this time the opponents had noticed.
The consequences became clear a year later. For the 2020 women's march, a court initially banned all rallies, officially because of the coronavirus. According to the organisers, the ban was also aimed at the previous LGBT participation. The city withdrew its application, but on 8 March 2020 a group of masked men attacked the demonstrators, threw eggs and tore up banners. The police then took around seventy activists to the station, not the attackers, and held them for hours without access to lawyers.
Kyrgyzstan had long been regarded as the most open country in the region. The rainbow flags of Bishkek showed how quickly this openness reaches its limits.