‘Let lesbians be, but f*ggots should be put in reservations!’ Sikorski about Lukashenka’s tolerance
The book Poland Might Be Better (Polska może być lepsza) by ex-Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski has appeared in the Polish bookstores this summer. Among other things, the diplomat told readers about his visit to Minsk and negotiations with Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
Former German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle also participated in the meeting that took place ahead of the 2010 presidential election. Mr Westerwelle, who was openly gay, died of leukemia in 2016.
When Sikorski said that their Europeanness was based not only on the tolerant attitude to ethnic minorities, but also to sexual minorities, Lukashenka looked at him as if he was ‘mad’, took a pause and said in surprise: “But we do not have any sexual minorities in Belarus.”
“Polish and German delegations are exchanging glances; everyone sitting at the table start to feel crazy, but I decide to continue and address him as if he was a patient: ‘Mr. President, I understand that Belarus has its own specifics. But hypothetically, if these minorities exist, will you then be tolerant towards them?’ And Lukashenka, glancing at Westerwelle and me and smiling, answers: “Well, I do not know, I do not know … Let lesbians be… One can even watch them! But f*ggots will be put in buses, taken out of town and placed in reservations,” the diplomat gives the details of the sensitive situation he found himself in.
After the elections, Alyaksandr Lukashenka told Russian media that it had been a ‘misunderstanding’.
“Westerwelle was resentful over my words, i.e. that I do not accept these homo … look, what is it called when a man [has sex] with a man? Homosexuality? Ok. I did not know, really. The minister [allegedly Sikorski] wrote a note to me about Westerwelle [being gay], but I did not read it,” Lukashenka said.
Alyaksandr Lukashenka did not hesitate to have a fling at the sexual orientation of Guido Westerwelle when warning Europe of a harsh response to its sanctions in March, 2012.
“It is better to be a dictator than gay. But let him go, rather, the question is that all of us remember the middle of the XXth century and the things that the world got out of their [German – Belsat] dictatorship. Our people still have not come round. That is why it is not them to reproach us for some dictatorship. I have no desire to reason about the subject at all,” Lukashenka said.
The Belarusian president is notorious of condemning gays and same-sex marriages, regarding them as a ‘tragic sign of a general spiritual crisis and the Western world’s blindness’ or ‘roots of evil’.
“But one should not stifle us – all the sanctions are counterproductive. Dear, don’t make us legalize same-sex marriages. As long as I’m president there will be no fagness in the country,” he said in April, 2013.
