By Kamal Ali
I heard of Conchita Wurst’s win in the Eurovision Song Contest in the small Caucasus mountain village of Ilisu from Alex Baker, a 31-year-old Englishman who was traveling the region.
I spent the weekend in my home village over 400 km northwest of Baku.
Alex and I shared a coupe on a Baku-Balakan train and I invited the polite and talkative man to my house in Ilisu for Sunday.
During his 24-hour stay in Ilisu, we talked about almost everything that’s happening in the world - developments in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia, Russia and Ukraine, etc. We had an exchange of views on Stalin, the two Aliyevs (Heydar and Ilham), and Putin.
Alex often started his criticism of the West by the words “George W. Bush”.
Finally, the Eurovision finals arrived and Alex read in the news on his mobile phone that the participant from Austria had won.
The last argument we had with Alex was about transsexuals. My initial attitude towards the winner was clearly not very friendly.
“Why did Europeans vote for this ‘bearded woman’?” I asked. “Her appearance causes psychological rejection. And why does Conchita, who lives in a tolerant country like Austria, has had to demonstrate his ugliness?”
Alex did not understand why I was so surprised.
After Azerbaijan’s Eurovision victory of 2011, the song competition lost interest among Baku residents. I think it was for clear reasons. Some people event did not want Azerbaijan’s entry to win again this year given that Baku will host the first European Games next year with an already overstretched budget.
Having argued with Alex, I now believe that voting for a transsexual with good voice, Europeans probably did the right thing.
Here is what I and Alex – two physically and ethnically different people who met in the Caucasus, a professional translator and an Azerbaijani journalist – concluded in the end:
Of course, Wurst understands that with such appearance he may not be pretty to anyone. As he said in a recentinterview, Wurst went out with his repulsive appearance to demonstrate that one should be judged not by his clothes, hair, body structure, sexual orientation or political views. If we consider ourselves civilized people living in the twenty-first century, let's be clear that no one is obliged to love others for their appearance. Likewise, a majority does not have to take into account the taste of a particular person or a minority.
If someone, be it a punk, transsexual or an Islamist, walks around the streets with dyed hair, beard or breast sewn to the navel, but does not pick our pockets, does not shit on the sidewalk and or break the glasses of shops (i.e. not breaking the law), let him walk as he pleases. We need to tolerate others the same way others tolerate us.
Bakudaily.az
