On July 28 Mamikon Hovsepyan received the Soul of Stonewall award in Berlin as a LGBT activist and human rights defender.<\/p>\n
The award was given to Mamikon Hovsepyan by the representative of Amnesty International, Stephan Cooper, who mentioned in his speech the recent developments in Armenia as well as the Armenian Genocide. He also quoted the anthem of Armenia, saying ‘Let Armenia always be glorious’.<\/p>\n
In his speech Hovsepyan addressed the issues of homophobia in Armenia, the absence of human rights protection legal mechanisms for LGBT people, and his activism: “I come from Armenia, where homophobia is still a big issue. During the centuries the country survived hate crimes, wars, a genocide but still we as a nation didn\u2019t learn to respect and protect each other, people still hate what is different. Recently we had one of the most memorable revolutions on Earth, we call it Revolution of Love and Solidarity but still we have a long way to go to change the minds of our society.”<\/p>\n
This is Mamikon Hovsepyan’s third award in 10 months. He received the first one, the Bob Hepple Equality award, in London, the second one was the Changemaker award given in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n