Opera Star’s Facebook Page Said She Supports Violence Against Gay ‘Fecal Masses’

Famous opera singer Tamar Iveri is under fire for a Facebook post applauding violence waged at an LGBT pride parade in her native country of Georgia, calling gay people “fecal masses.” 

“I was quite proud of the fact how Georgian society spat at the parade… Often, in certain cases, it is necessary to break jaws in order to be appreciated as a nation in the future, and to be taken into account seriously. Please, stop vigorous attempts to bring West’s ‘fecal masses’ in the mentality of the people by means of propaganda.”

That’s the statement that appeared in May of last year on opera star Tamar Iveri’s Facebook page after violence broke out at an LGBT pride parade in Tbilisi, Georgia. “The riot was led by priests from the Georgian Orthodox Church, according to the New York Times. Thousands attacked a group of about 50 LGBT activists. At least 12 people were hospitalized,” the Huffington Post reports.

Iveri’s husband claims the couple share a Facebook profile and he wrote the ugly remarks. Raul Tskhadadze in a Facebook post from his own account says that “when Tamar returned home she erased the letter and got very upset.”

“She had endured and suffered a lot because of the letter which I wrote,” Tskhadadze adds. “Tamar has never been homophobic and especially [is] not against Western values.”

The Hufington Post reports Iveri “said she was ‘shocked and saddened to be called homophobic‘ and attributed the post to her ‘very religious’ husband, Raul Tskhadadze, who has ‘a tough attitude towards gay people.'”

But perhaps that was too little, and too late.

The press recently has been reporting on the comments. Calling the views made last year “unconscionable,” Iveri’s employer, Opera Australia, says she will not be performing in “Otello” and she has been “release[d] her from her contract with the company.”

Iveri last night said she is “immensely saddened and hurt by the campaign which is now being mounted against me,” and she has “never been prejudiced against anyone, whether for religious, or racial reasons, or for any other kind of prejudice including those regarding sexual preference.”

And she says she was not fired, but rather resigned.

“I have now decided to withdraw from the cast,” her Facebook post reads. “As difficult as it has been to come to this decision, I do so out out of consideration for the tranquillity of my colleagues and for the success of the production. By withdrawing, I wish to insure that the performances take place undisturbed by any further controversy. I do not want such an important artistic event to be marred by any problem which, however unintentionally, has developed because of my presence in the cast.”

 

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