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Storm brewing over Georgian opera singer

Sun 22 Jun 2014 In: International News

Tamar Iveri says her gay-hating husband wrote the post Opera Australia is refusing demands it sack a Georgian opera singer who is accused of describing gay people as “faecal matter”. Georgian soprano Tamar Iveri is in Sydney rehearsing to play Desdemona in Otello. She will then perform in Tosca in Melbourne. An open letter to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, which was posted on her Facebook page last year, has been circulated sparking a call for her to be sent packing. “I was quite proud of the fact that Georgian society spat at the parade,” the letter says, referring to a lgbti parade in her home nation. It continues: “vigorous attempts to bring West’s ‘faecal masses’ in the mentality of the people by means of propaganda.” In a letter Iveri says her husband wrote, gay people are described as “a sexual deviation” and as something which “devastates the fragile nature of children, especially, as by medical perspective – out of the 50 people maximum three are born gay. For others it is acquired because of following the trend or because of entering some kind of groups of people.” The singer finishes: “If you ignore it today… tomorrow they will demand same-sex marriages, the day after tomorrow they will require rights for adoption.” The post has been removed from her Facebook page, and Iveri is blaming her husband for writing it. “My husband was using my Facebook account at that time and he is a very religious man with a tough attitude towards gay people,” she says. “He copied my text, changed it considerably and posted it under my name. You might imagine that I was not happy with that at all.” Iveri says she explained the situation at the time and apologised to the lgbt community in Georgia. “For my entire career I have been working with gay people and some of them are very dear friends. All of them can confirm that I never lost a word that might associate me with homophobic ideas. I respect every single human being and I am against all kind of discrimination and violence.” The response has not eased demands for her to leave Australia. Opera Australia has referred people to Iveri’s statement, and says “Rehearsals and performances at Opera Australia are continuing as planned.”    

Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff

First published: Sunday, 22nd June 2014 - 11:48am

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