We previously informed that the Ministry of Culture had rejected recognizing LGBT advertisements as social ads, but had not specified the reasons in the rejection letter.
In a letter dated November 24, referring to the advertisement law, that to be recognized as a social advertising the ads have to be a part of human rights and social protection, and that its purpose is to inform the society about a social problem, fact, conduct or adverse phenomenon, inform the public about the necessity of fighting against and preventing it, the The Ministry of Culture informs that LGBT ads contain: “Information about a class of society who have non-traditional sexual orientation, advertising their integration in the society, meanwhile, not containing any element of social awareness and are not of any public importance. ”
Afterwards, the social advertising committee reports: “It is also worth mentioning that at present the society is aware of the existence of people with both traditional and non-traditional sexual orientations through TV programs, social media, and other information means, so in this case there is no need to inform the public about it in general.”
In addition, the committee argues that: “The presented advertising projects not only advertise to the public about the existence of that class but also openly advertise a number of organizations that propagate non-traditional sexual orientation. The advertising designs include websites of organizations, networks and QR codes for video clips. ”
The Republican commission adjunct to the authorized body for supervision over the maintenance of legislation on social advertising has rejected the three applications for recognizing the ads as social by 0 for, 0, abstaining and 11 against votes. These ads are: “Do you want everyone to be happy? Then wish us happiness”, “LGBT people are not invisible. You meet them every day”, and “Trans Persons are Part of Our Society” video clips and posters.
The answer was signed by the Chairperson of the commission A. Poghosyan and the Secretary A. Babakhanyan’s name.
Public Information and Need of Knowledge NGO (Pink Armenia) is preparing to apply to the Administrative Court based on this.
On May 27, 2017, LGBT advertising posters were dismantled by the decision of the municipality, reasoning that they were illegally installed. Pink Armenia filed a lawsuit against the Municipality to the Administrative Court of Armenia for removing the advertisements. The lawsuit is currently in the court proceedings.
