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Ryan Schweitzer, "Homosexuality in Central Asia: Stories of Hardship and Hope" (B&N Press, 2026)
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- [00:01]
A
Welcome to the New Books Network.
- [00:05]
B
Hi, listeners. I'm really excited to welcome Ryan Michael Schweitzer to the podcast to discuss his book Homosexuality in Central Stories of Hardship and Hope. A new edition of this book was published by Barnes and Noble Press just this May of 2026. Among other accomplishments, Ryan received a master's degree from the OSCE Academy in Central Asia and a master's in Islamic Studies from Harvard University. His work focuses on security, human rights, and identity in Central Asia, with particular attention to how state policies, nationalism, religion, and personal identity shape everyday life. He has conducted extensive fieldwork throughout Central Asia, including with a Fulbright research grant and speaks Uzbek and some Turkmen. Ryan, welcome.
- [00:52]
A
Thank you so much for having me on the podcast.
- [00:54]
B
I wanted to ask you, how did you end up doing this project, and what initially drew you to this subject? You know, was there a particular moment or encounter in the region that made you feel like these stories needed to be told?
- [01:08]
A
Yeah. So I've been in Central Asia quite a lot for over the last nine, 10 years. And throughout my time there, I had gotten to know a lot of people within the LGBTQ community, whether it was through my internship at the US Embassy and Tashkent or my Fulbright experience at different universities in Uzbekistan. A lot of students would come up to me and they would ask questions about different freedoms in America, women's rights, LGBT rights. And that was something that really started the conversation around it. But privately, individuals would come up to me and start telling me some of their stories. And after years of this happening, I finally got this idea of that while a lot of people can't tell these stories publicly in Central Asia, they do want their stories heard around the world. It's really important to them. And so the more I got to meet individuals within the community and got a lot of them to trust me, I was able to start collecting their stories to tell the world, because that's really essentially what this book was intended to do, was just share those personal narratives that so many trusted with me to share with the world.
- [02:25]
B
You cover a lot of ground in the book also, just in terms of geographies. So you have, you know, accounts from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Are these all collected from your travels and organically, as you mentioned, or did you. What was your methodology, I guess, in collecting all these stories?
- [02:44]
A
Yeah, so this was never meant to be an academic work that had sort of a methodology. It was. It was more qualitative and relationship based. And so, as I said, I've been throughout Central Asia all Of the countries I've lived and worked in, some of them and personal travel and others. And throughout my time there, I just got to meet a lot of different individuals. I wasn't out searching, oh, I need a story from this country, I need a story from this city, like a lot of academic research would have, because I didn't need it to be statistical or any sort of quantitative research based. I just wanted to be able to share stories. And so ultimately, I guess my methodology came down to just gaining trust from others and throughout the years and really be able to like, further my personal network. All of these stories came to me either through personal relationships or friends who introduced their friends to me. Kind of just happened based on different relationships that I had built throughout the years throughout all of the countries of Central Asia.
- [03:49]
B
I'm curious then how you decided to present these different accounts. You know, because some are third person and some it seems that they were written by your interview subjects themselves and then submitted almost an essay form. How did you go about that? How did you make those decisions?
- [04:08]
A
Yeah, well, this book was written essentially by different individuals. It's a different collection of different stories around Central Asia from whatever perspective that the person I interviewed wanted it. So some of them wanted to tell their stories exactly firsthand. Others, whether it was through a creative outlet or some something else. Like in chapter eight, there's the poetry written by one of them. Uh, and that was how he wanted to present half of his story. And so since this wasn't an academic book, there was quite a lot of creative freedom that I could take with it. And then other perspectives. And then chapter two, Shakir's story, who was sadly murdered for being gay, his story was a little more unique in that his family and friends were the ones who were of being interviewed. And so that story had to be pieced together through different narratives. And it obviously couldn't have been firsthand. That's why that chapter isn't exactly the same as all the others, because each one had a unique format that needed to like, be told.
- [05:23]
B
I wanted to touch on one more thing around, you know, the methodology which you mentioned as well. You say that the book has received some criticism for not following a traditional academic framework. And after having read through these heartbreaking, in a lot of ways stories, I think that there's, there's merit to just having these accounts out there in the world. But I'm just wondering from your perspective, how did you sort of reconcile that? And I know that there's a second obviously edition of the book that was just released. And you really do kind of go into that in the beginning, in the introduction. Can you kind of unpack that?
- [06:00]
A
So that is why, really, what precipitated the second edition was the fact that the first one really was missing. Just the fact that I think a lot of people first approach this book through an academic lens, or were hoping that it would be more academic, because there is such a gap in the literature in Central Asia, but especially within queer Central Asia studies. And so I think that since this was the first book on such a topic, that people were really hoping for that academic analysis, which it's really not. It really is a narrative format book that's meant to essentially just communicate human experiences in ways that statistics often cannot. And that's why I didn't want it to be an academic focused book, because I didn't want it to just be numbers. These are human stories. And while academic research is extremely important for understanding, I guess, the broad social trends and legal frameworks, I didn't want individuals, especially if this was their first time reading anything or understanding about Central Asia. I didn't want them to be inundated with all of that, the academic focus. I wanted just the stories to tell themselves, because these realities that people are living are happening every day, and it's more important to document the voices in the way that they wanted to be heard. And so with the second edition, as you mentioned, I really go in, especially in the beginning, about really setting the reader up for that understanding that this isn't an academic work, and that's that academic work still needs to be done, whether it's from me or someone else. I think in the future it would be important, but for now, it's the stories that need to be heard.
- [07:43]
B
I agree. Well, despite not having, you know, a theoretical grounding, you do make sure to situate these individual stories within the historical and political context. You describe, for instance, how Soviet legal and moral frameworks criminalized homosexuality, and some of these attitudes still persist. You also mention religious and cultural values. And we don't want to paint the entire region with broad strokes. But what are some threads that you see running through the different contexts in terms of queer people's lived experiences and the institutions that govern their lives and maybe some ways in which they differ.
- [08:28]
A
Yeah, of course. I mean, especially like what you just said. One of the most important things to understand is that there isn't a single Central Asian experience even within one country. The regions are so vastly different that one person's experience within the LGBTQ community is Way different than a different region or even city. And so. But historically, many of the frameworks affecting LGBTQ people today have roots in the Soviet period, especially for male same sex relations. The Soviet Union criminalized these, and after independence, some countries retained those laws that are. Are still currently affecting the LGBTQ community, especially in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. But law is only really part of the story, even in places where it is not criminalized. In Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, social pressures, family expectations, the religious aspect of it, and really concerns about reputation can have a profound impact on the everyday lives of people in the LGBTQ community. But again, those situations are so vastly different for everyone within the region because those pressures are a little bit different. But what emerged repeatedly in my interviews was that law really mattered less than in people's daily lives rather than the. The informal systems of control. And maybe this is where I could have been a little more academic, because many people were really less worried about being prosecuted in court. They were more worried about just being exposed to their families, employers, and neighbors in the community. That's really where a lot of the fear seemed to lie. They knew that, especially Newsbekistan and Turkmenistan, that it. That it was illegal, but that really didn't stop them. It was the fear of being exposed that really hinders their daily life. And even more so, several interviewees described surveillance, blackmail, extortion. I think this is more where the stories are told rather than the legal and historical aspects of Central Asia. It's really in those experiences of everyday life, of being surveilled and being exposed to their families, that became more of a powerful tool for social control rather than the law itself.
- [11:06]
B
I found that really interesting that. That aspect of it, which, which I. I also noticed that was a. A thread that was running through, and it broke my heart. Just that collapse of trust and the betrayal that often occurs by friends, by family. For example, there's a young man from Turkmenistan who. Whose friend tips off the security forces about his sexuality and also about his HIV status. There's another whose former partner implicates him after being arrested, another who gets blackmailed by a police officer. How do these individuals move through this kind of hardship? And did it ever feel really significant than. Even more significant than that they were able to confide in you?
- [11:49]
A
Yeah, I mean, that is what. What really was most significant for me was the level of trust that it took to write this. This is why the first edition was even less than 100 pages. Because before. Right before publication, a lot of people still felt a little trepidation, even though that we. They had grown to trust me. They still didn't trust us exactly. The system, I guess, or they didn't know Barnes and Noble Press. And so a lot of people backed out. People be and that first edition was published a few years ago, but with this new edition in 2026, I was really able to continue going to the region, meeting with people and regaining that trust and really showing them that with the first edition of the book that people could really trust Barnes Noble Press with how it was published as well. And that's why the, the, the new book, the new edition of the book is 230 pages because I was able to get 10 more of those individuals who originally were a little reticent to come back and really want to be a part of telling their story. Because trust is so important. And I. And that is one of the major themes that really surprised me most. It wasn't that the discrimination itself, but the fragility of trust, I guess. Within Central Asia, the queer community. Many of the individuals who I interviewed were constantly making calculations about who knew what about them, what stories had they told to other people because they wanted to really know who they could trust and what might happen if this personal information were to be exposed or in any way found out by people who they love and environments where being LGBTQ can have really bad social consequences. Trust becomes extraordinarily important. And that's what I really found. Found. I don't know what the exact word should be, but I, I found precious about my time in Central Asia is that these individuals would trust me with something so difficult that they had to deal with in their life.
- [13:52]
B
Several people in, in the book are living double lives, so they maintain heterosexual marriages, for example, while sustaining hidden relationships. There's one that I really loved about a Kyrgyz woman who was a victim of bride kidnapping and then ends up falling in love with her sister in law. You're careful not to reduce this kind of coping to deception or weakness. You frame it instead as a rational response to coercion. I'm curious as to how this may have informed your framing or curation of the stories. I'm sure probably you had a lot more collections of stories and were published. You make it a point even in the title stories of hardship and hope, to draw out that hope and not just despair and hardship. So how did that inform your approach?
- [14:44]
A
Yeah, for me, one of the major things that I really wanted to focus on in this book because a lot of the stories are sad, but I didn't want this book just to portray that LGBT life in Central Asia is bad or that individuals within the community are just victims, because that is definitely not true. There's. There's certainly hardship in many of the stories, but there's also remarkable resilience, creativity, humor, and determination. And that's what I also wanted to show, and that's what I also put in the title, is that even though there's hardship, there's still hope. All of these people living in Central Asia still have hope for themselves, for the future, for their families. Everything, the stuff that they're experiencing isn't putting them down in any way. They don't see themselves as victims. So I didn't want readers in the west to think that people in the queer community are just helpless victims. And I know you touched base on like this sort of double life that some of them have to. To live because of that social pressure. And I think that in the West, a lot of times, people view this double life as a form of repression or dishonesty. But many of the people that I interviewed saw it differently. For them, navigating this multiple identities wasn't a sign of. Of weakness really. It was a strategy for survival and maintaining that family relationships, because that is what is important to them. Even though they have this aspect that they're hiding from their families, they still really value and love their families like everyone else. And so double life is a way for them to maintain both worlds, in a sense, and to gain control over their lives while they're pursuing careers, building families and preserving that community tie and creating space for themselves within the realities of their societies. And so I think in a Western context, maybe this double life is sort of looked down upon. But for the individuals that I interviewed, this was a way for them to survive and to be able to continue having both their family and their personal life. And I think we really sometimes underestimate in the west, specifically, how much agency exists within sort of societies that we view as repressed, because all of these individuals still had agency, like the stories being told about having to live these double lives. And many of the individuals were making these choices about what to reveal, who to reveal to, how to portray themselves out in public. And that is agency. And while these are. Are difficult choices, they are still choices at the end of the day for them to be able to navigate this social relationship. And that's what I really wanted to portray in these stories, but also in the title, that even though everyone is facing hardships, they still have a little bit of control and they have hope because of that control.
- [17:51]
B
I'm curious, because one thing that I didn't touch on in terms of the scope was that a lot of these accounts, obviously, for reasons that you can explain, are CIS men. What were the limitations around collecting stories from trans people or, you know, lesbians or people. People on other parts of the spectrum?
- [18:14]
A
Yeah, I think that the book scope is definitely important to acknowledge because most, as you said, participants are either cisgender gay or bisexual men. But that really reflects the practical challenges of conducting, I don't want to say research, but even just informal conversations in such an. A sensitive environment, especially in more traditional places outside of capital cities, where I was in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, a lot of women don't get to interact with foreign men. And so a lot of those stories that are out there, I wasn't able to tell because I am a cisgendered male. Those other stories do exist. It's just that I wasn't able to find them within my networks or even when I was able to, I wasn't able to meet with those individuals to get the full story out. And so that is one of the challenges writing this book or any academic research, especially concerning sexuality in Central Asia. And so, unfortunately, that is one aspect that this book is lacking. And the result really is just that this isn't a comprehensive portrait of LGBT experiences, which is also why I don't want it to be viewed as an academic source, because it does lack those stories. I just. It's more of just a collection of individual stories that provide insight into the community and a community, a subset of the community that I was able to encounter. I tried to be able to present more stories, especially from trans individuals and females, but I just couldn't make that happen.
- [19:58]
B
Unfortunately, that makes sense. And I think, in addition to the fact that, of course, you're a cisgender male, I think there's a. Public spaces are not frequented as often by, you know, people that are not cisgender males. So it's hard to, even at a spatial level, interact with those people.
- [20:21]
A
Of course. And even when I was doing Fulbright, the only time I got in trouble in Central Asia was during one time I had to do each week, like an English language conversation club at the university. And the only two topics that they didn't really want me to talk about were women's rights and human rights, especially about LGBT rights. But a lot of my female students would always ask me questions, not even very sensitive questions, but just in general, like about what women's lives look like in America. And when I would answer this Question I would get in trouble by security services, stuff like this. And so there is an interest out there, especially from this younger generation of women, what human rights really means. And human rights, from women's studies to LGBT studies, everything. It's just that this information doesn't ever get to them. Or if it does, it's just very hard to even have those conversations without getting in trouble.
- [21:22]
B
How did you navigate that then?
- [21:25]
A
Yeah, unfortunately after that, once students were starting to really get interested in this, the school itself stopped allowing like a free flowing conversation. It set the topics that we had to discuss. And so that really was the only way to navigate that if I wanted to be able to maintain good status with the university, was that I had to just play by their rules. But of course, once I left Central Asia, in Uzbekistan, a lot of students still reach out to me and so I'm still able to freely answer their questions. And so it just took years later to finally be able to answer them. But I found the same thing with writing this book is that even once the book was published or even once I had done those interviews, years later, this network is still like talking about their experiences with one another. And so sometimes I get messages from people who want to tell their stories. And so maybe one day they'll be maybe a more academic focused because there are so many stories that still want to be heard and told. And so it just takes time with Central Asia to be able to tell those stories.
- [22:39]
B
I wonder what has the reception been like on both sides? So for those whose stories have been told by this book, and then I'm sure that there's been maybe some level of distribution even on a formal level of this on the ground, maybe not. Maybe you can expand on that as well as what have readers that are not Central Asian or from the region learn from this or what kind of questions do they have now?
- [23:08]
A
Yeah, so starting with within the region, I know the book, it somehow got leaked on like a Russian website that leaks books. And so the full book can be found somewhere on the dark web or somewhere on the interweb. And I know that that's how a lot of individuals are reading it in the region.
- [23:27]
B
They're reading it Was a translated into Russian or is it in English?
- [23:30]
A
No, they're reading it in English. So that's the one issue is right now this book is only written in English, but especially with the younger generation, there are a lot who know English at least a little bit. And so this book is definitely being read right now. Barnes and Noble Press only sells, I think, in the US And Canada. And so this book formally can't be sold in Central Asia. It's going through all these different groups online. And I know it has received some good. Some bad feedback and not bad feedback from individuals within the LGBTQ community. There has been some backlash against it from some more religious individuals. There's a Telegram group who goes against LGBT individuals in Central Asia and publishes like, their face or in, like their telegram accounts. Sometimes if they can get their passports, they publish their passport information. So that's these individuals, essentially, yes. And so this book was also on that site where they. Not that they could figure out whose stories were being told or anything, because that is the one thing that has been changed in the book are the people's names. But just the fact that this book existed and that someone me was able to reach individuals were like, there was a lot of comments about, like, trying to harm me, etc, because this book exists. And so this book is definitely being read by good people, bad people. But I think that it is being told there. I have had people reach out who. Who want to translate it into Uzbek, into Russian, into Kazakh. And so maybe I will be able to do this whether it's through Barnes and Noble Press or not. That's still to be decided. I don't know what the appetite for that would be with Barnes and Noble Press, but if I could get it as an independently published book within different translations, that would be something to look for in the West. I've gotten a lot of, besides sometimes the criticism just about that the initial book wasn't academic focused like people have had, But a lot of people within the LGBTQ community have reached out to me, whether they're Central Asia from Central Asia, living in the west, or just people who are not Central Asian reading the book, they've all really appreciated the fact that these stories are being told, especially since individuals in the region normally can't do it themselves. And so that has received a lot of positive feedback from that aspect. And so I was just really excited that individuals from Central Asia are able to read this book through whatever format, whether it's online or through telegram, etc. I do plan to come to Central Asia in the coming months. I will be able to have a few copies with me. And so I plan to give these out, but other than that, I think a lot of people are just finding it through their friends or through online networks.
- [26:25]
B
Was there a fear that. That people would be able to dox individuals based on these accounts and them kind of Identifying the individuals based on the stories themselves. And I mean, you do mention that some people have threatened you and things. Do you think that's going to impact your ability to do research or travel to the region in the future?
- [26:47]
A
Yeah. So with the first part of it, of course there was a fear that individuals would be able to figure out stories, but that's why I wrote it in a way that really doesn't have a lot of very specific identifying details about an individual. It's just their story and that's whatever account they wanted. That's why a lot of times the stories go from first person accounts, third person accounts. It kind of allows for a little more anonymity. But the only really story that has ever been publicly acknowledged or in the media was the Shakir story because of his murder. And so when his family and friends were inter interviewed, I really had this discussion with them of what would be the repercussions and for you for being interviewed. And of course they were scared, but they weren't doing anything illegal by speaking with me. And so their stories, I would take parts of their story to put it together to form that in chapter two. But for everyone else, their stories have never been publicly acknowledged. There's no way to find out. And so especially once the first edition was published and individuals have realized that there hadn't been any negative repercussions, whether from the law or from individuals doxing them online, anything like this, none of these consequences occurred. That is how I got really the trust of the other 10 individuals to be included in the second edition because of the steps that I took in Barnes and Noble Press and my editor Michael took to really ensure that individuals couldn't be exposed in any way. Because that is a fear. It's happening all the time in Central Asia. Not from this book, but I mean, from like dating apps in Central Asia. People are always being exposed in these various telegram groups. And so that also was to answer the second part of your question, how it can affect me traveling to the region. I know the last time I went to Uzbekistan, the person who sponsored my visa, the security services brought her in to their office and we're really questioning why she sponsored my visa knowing that I talk to individuals in the LGBTQ community and they made her promise that I wouldn't have any more conversations with any individuals and that I wouldn't publish anything and otherwise she would get in trouble. And so that was the restriction that was replaced. I mean, the last time that I was there was that I couldn't publish anything. I couldn't speak to individuals within the queer community, otherwise the person who sponsored my visa would get in trouble. That's really been the only repercussion so far for me for writing this book. We'll see. I'm trying to get an Uzbek visa currently, so we'll see if it's declined or not. But it's always a constant fear. And I almost didn't include my name in the title, but Barnes Noble Press really wanted it to have an author instead of, like, a fake name to tie it to just because of, like, American tax liability, all of this stuff. And so unfortunately, that's why I had to put my full name on the title.
- [29:55]
B
Well, hopefully you still can get that visa and even if it's not to Uzbekistan, travel to other places as well. I'm curious about Barnes and Noble as a publisher, actually. How. How did you manage to get their attention and what was their interest in telling these stories?
- [30:12]
A
Yes. So I think I came from a really good place because I had just finished that internship at the US Embassy that I could put behind my name of. Hey, I. I'm. I've been at this official location. I have the. Their backing to tell some of these stories. And just based on my academic background, I think Barnes and Noble really took, I guess, a leap of faith to really hope that this book would be something that others would enjoy. Because if you go through Barnes and Noble Press website, there really isn't that many books about Central Asia, especially modern books. There's some historical books telling the history of Central Asia, but it's usually from the Russian perspective, not even the Central Asian perspective. And so this is sort of a unique book in the fact that it was basically written by Central Asians and so. Which is not representative in the West. Definitely not representative in Barnes and Noble. And so IIA in general, I would say, or exactly. In a world. Yeah, yeah. And that's so unfortunate. And. And I think they really just took that leap of faith, and once they saw that there was an interest, they just maintained it because they could have dropped it at any time. But luckily, I think I just got in at the right time as well. Central Asia, especially right now, at least in politics, is quite interesting. In America, you finally start to see it in the news, and not just about Afghanistan. Uzbek president and Kazakh president were just in America. And it. This sort of interest in Central Asia isn't fading. I think it's really just beginning. And that's really a hope of mine that individuals not only in the queer community, but Central Asia in general will get it's finally, it's due attention. And so I think Barnes and Noble saw that that was coming and they took a chance on this book.
- [32:03]
B
Yeah, that's quite interesting. I remember when I, when I was looking up the book to then interview you and seeing it on Barnes and Noble was just, I mean, because normally we deal with public, other kinds of publishers, but yeah, it was very surprising to me in a good way. The book ends with a list of organizations that you put together that are working in the region addressing queer issues under very extremely difficult conditions, obviously. So how might audience members who are interested in learning more or that are interested in providing support do so? And is there anything that you've seen since completing this work that gives you cause for cautious optimism about where things may go in the future?
- [32:52]
A
Yeah. And so if anyone wants to really help in this cause, all of those organizations that I listed would be more than welcome to find a way. It's really a sensitive area because these organizations, while they're providing great work within and without Central Asia, because a lot of them are European based, but some are locally based. But that's the issue is that if they get too much attention, they run the risk of getting shut down by the government. The government doesn't really want too much attention on the LGBTQ topic. It's one that they like to avoid. And that's why really with this chapter, I wanted to show that these organizations exist and there's a lot more that exist if readers do their research online that I didn't want to fully publish every organization that's helping because it is quite sensitive. But all of these organizations have websites or telegram accounts, WhatsApp accounts that individuals, the readers can reach out to and find ways to help, whether it's in the west or in through Central Asia. But I think it's really important that for readers to know that these organizations exist in Central Asia, there's not hopelessness like that. A lot of people may seem to believe there's actual work being done in Central Asia about the LGBTQ community. And not from the government, it's from these local grassroots organizations. And those are the ones that really are going to provide for the future, a change for the future. And that is what gives me cautious optimism, is even though that the environment, the social, the political, the legal environment in Central Asia is quite fragile, there's active, really active groups within Central Asia queer community who are doing great work and they're building the future that they want to see and that they will see eventually in Central Asia. It's just. That's what gives me cautious optimism, is that the continued existence of communities and support networks, despite all of these significant
- [35:01]
B
obstacles, community really is everything.
- [35:04]
A
Exactly.
- [35:06]
B
What do you hope that, you know, people will take away from this project? You mentioned some things already, but anything else that may come to mind. And I know that obviously you don't speak on behalf of the people that you interviewed, but often people tell you, you know, this is kind of what I want people to know about us. What might those messages be, if anybody has told you such a thing?
- [35:32]
A
Yeah, I mean, if there's one thing I really want to emphasize is that these stories are not meant to stand in for an entire region or an entire community. Like you said, I don't speak for the entire LGBTQ community, especially in Central Asia. All of these stories, these are individual lives. And if reader. Readers take anything from these stories and these lives, it's that people in Central Asia are not defined solely by the categories that. That are described to them. They're like anyone else, complex human beings trying to navigate a world that essentially that they had to inherit. And I hope that the book really encourages a kind of empathy that doesn't require any sort of agreement with the queer community or even familiarity with Central Asia. You don't have to know the region well, and you don't have to share the same experiences to recognize, really, the universal want and goal of just wanting safety, dignity, and love and belonging. And I think that's really what these stories try to portray and that anyone who picks up this book hopefully gains from it, that they don't have to know anything from Central Asia to know that these are people who deserve dignity and respect.
- [36:50]
B
Are there any projects or next steps that we should keep an eye out coming from you?
- [36:55]
A
Yeah. So I really do want to really start to fill in that academic gap within Central Asia studies about the queer community. For me, I do want to focus more on the legal aspect of what is happening in Central Asia. I mean, this is a conversation that is continually being had within policymakers in Central Asia. I mean, even the president of Kazakhstan spoke about against LGBT rights within the last year with this new law that really mirrors Russian anti LGBT propaganda law. Yeah. And so this sort of conversation is always being had, and the legal landscape is always changing. I mean, even in Uzbekistan, the entire legal system was recently updated, but the one article that they refused to touch was Article 120, which is the article that bans homosexuality. And I know many different European governments and U.S. the U.S. government and organizations tried to get Uzbekistan to change this law and that is the one law that they refused to update. They updated all of their business law to allow more businesses to come in. They updated their law to allow hijabs in universities and schools now in Uzbekistan for the first time. But the one thing that they refused to touch was this article 120 and and even a really influential MP in Uzbekistan, Alisher Kodorov, he's always going against the LGBTQ community on telegram and in interviews. And he is also starting to draft the law banning LGBT propaganda, mirroring the one that was just passed in Kazakhstan and Russia. And so I really want to focus more on what is happening and draw attention to the legal landscape going against the LGBTQ community in Central Asia. And so this is something that I would look out for. I'm also starting to do initial research on more a historical perspective through Central Asian written poetry, stuff like this, where it there really are historical examples of LGBT loves Q l love stories within Central Asia from the historical perspective in Bukhara, especially written in Farsi. And so I would like to publish some sort of academic work on this as well. We'll see what happens. First, I have to get this Uzbek visa to be able to go back to Uzbekistan and start some of this. But yeah, I think that whether it's me or anyone, I hope people start taking more of an interest in these gaps in the academic and even just the non academic stories that need to be told.
- [39:50]
B
Yeah, queer history is so important and I look forward to potentially having you back on when you do manage to finish those. Those projects.
- [39:58]
A
Of course.
- [39:59]
B
Ryan, thank you so much for bringing these voices to a wider audience. It does take a particular kind of care to do this work and also courage, especially on the part of all the people who shared their stories. Thank you for being on the podcast.
- [40:12]
A
Well, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to speak about this book and to tell more about these stories and just, yeah, giving me the time and the platform to be able to do so. So I really appreciate you. Thank you so much.
- [40:24]
B
Thank you. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of New Books in Central Asian Studies. If you want to stay up to date with our episodes, make sure to subscribe, follow us on social media and Visit us@newbooksnetwork.com I'm your host, Cholpunar Mizava. Thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time.
- [40:40]
C
Thank you for listening to this episode of the New Books Network. We are an academic podcast network with the mission of public education. If you liked this episode, please share it with a friend and rate us on your preferred podcast platform. You can browse all of our episodes on our website newbooksnetwork.com Connect with us on Instagram and BlueSky with the handle ew booksnetwork, and subscribe to our weekly Substack newsletter at newbooksnetwork.substack.com to get episode recommendations straight to your inbox.