I recently contacted an Armenian artist, whom I admire, to invite him to be a guest on the podcast. He politely declined. But his reason for declining the interview has haunted me since. He said to me that the only negativity towards his work has come from other Armenians and he wants next to nothing to do with the community.

At first, I was saddened and a little shocked. I mean, he is a virtuoso. There’s no one quite like him in the world. He has brought Armenian themes (to not give too much away about his art form) to the world at large and received praise and applause. He is beautiful, and sensitive, and deep and openly gay.

I Googled an old interview of his and discovered that when he initially rose to fame, the worldwide adulation was accompanied by hate mail and death threats. From Armenians. Only from Armenians. His own people had betrayed him. And I thought, no wonder he wants nothing to do with Armenians… he deserves to protect himself, his life, his sanity and peace of mind. It made me terribly sad.

If we can alienate even the geniuses among us, what chance do ordinary Armenians stand? How can we tolerate this ignorance and allow racism, homophobia, misogyny to continue to claim victims in our community? We cannot. We must not.

Each and every one of us must speak out, and embody our authentic selves, to protect the vulnerable among us. It’s the only way we will ever be able to create a community where all Armenians who have ever felt on the fringes of our society will truly feel at Home.