'You n't be out': Gay Egyptians ntue to fear persecutn

Contents:

• HOW ONE GAY EGYPTIAN WOMAN STOOD UP TO HOMOPHOBIA AND PAID THE ULTIMATE PRICE
• ARRTED FOR WAVG RABOW FLAG, A GAY EGYPTIAN TAK HER LIFE
• EGYPT EXPANDS CRACKDOWN ON GAY AND TRANSGENR PEOPLE
• EGYPTIAN OFFICIALS SYSTEMILLY ABE AND TORTURE GAYS, RIGHTS GROUP SAYS
• 'YOU N'T BE OUT': GAY EGYPTIANS NTUE TO FEAR PERSECUTN

HOW ONE GAY EGYPTIAN WOMAN STOOD UP TO HOMOPHOBIA AND PAID THE ULTIMATE PRICE

(Beit) – Egyptian police and Natnal Secury Agency officers arbrarily arrt lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) people and ta them human ndns, systematilly subject them to ill-treatment cludg torture, and often ce fellow mat to abe them, Human Rights Watch said today. Human rights groups have documented wi-sle ab the wake of a September 2017 ncert by the Lebane band Mashrou’ Leila, whose lead sger is openly gay and which performs songs that support sexual and genr diversy.

Police randomly picked up five men bee of what the thori scribed as “feme and gay gtur” and one transgenr woman due to her “abnormal appearance. I was taed a ge unr a stairway [at the prosecutor’s office], wasn’t even a prison cell, [but merely] a 3 by 2-meters ty room, wh 25 gay and transgenr people. When Hegazi and her iends raised the rabow flag at the September 2017 ncert by Mashrou’ Leila, a Lebane band wh an openly gay ontman, she was hailed by alli for “breakg many barriers of silence, ” said her iend Tarek Salama.

ARRTED FOR WAVG RABOW FLAG, A GAY EGYPTIAN TAK HER LIFE

Police ultimately taed at least 75 people the month followg the ncert what one Egyptian rights group lled an “unprecented upsurge  secury crackdown targetg gay and transgenr cizens or those believed to be so. “Sarah mted a crime agast relign and society by supportg homosexualy and publicizg her homosexualy and atheism, ” one er wrote on Facebook. In Egypt’s Twtersphere, her name was trendg along wh “People of Lot, ” a reference to a Quranic passage about punishment for homosexualy.

March 23 (UPI) -- Grdr, the popular gay datg applitn, has sent an alert to all of s ers Egypt warng that police arrted dozens of s ers over the weekend. The alert, which was first sent to Egyptian ers on Monday, warned that police were "actively makg arrts of gay, bi, and trans people" on digal platforms cludg Grdr. "The Egyptian Penal Co crimaliz homosexualy unr the term 'habual bchery' Article 9, paragraph (c) of Law 10/1961 for batg adultery and bchery, " the fact sheet reads.

EGYPT EXPANDS CRACKDOWN ON GAY AND TRANSGENR PEOPLE

Grdr, the world’s most popular gay datg app, sent a warng to all of s ers Egypt this week followg reports that dozens of LGBTQ people had been arrted the untry over the weekend.

“We have been alerted that Egyptian police is actively makg arrts of gay, bi, and trans people on digal platforms, ” the warng msage, first sent on Monday, says. Homosexualy is still crimalized 67 untri and jurisdictns, acrdg to Human Digny Tst, a global advocy group for LGBTQ rights.

Ugandans who have gay sex would be sentenced to life prison if the legislatn be ValleJay Valle reports and produc digal ntent for NBC Out.

EGYPTIAN OFFICIALS SYSTEMILLY ABE AND TORTURE GAYS, RIGHTS GROUP SAYS

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTCharged wh “cg bchery, ” Sarah Hegazi was jailed and Schwghammer/Picture Alliance, via Getty ImagCAIRO — When the openly gay ontman of a hugely popular Lebane pop group sttted onto the stage of a Cairo summer ftival 2017, rabow flags lifted the air, and somethg sparked si Sarah a lbian a untry where homosexualy is taboo, and gay people are routely persecuted by the thori, here was a glimmer of eedom. Although homosexualy is not technilly illegal Egypt, gay people are subjected to ep-rooted societal prejudic and are equently prosecuted by the police unr laws that crimalize “bchery.

She had shed the head-verg veil that she had once worn, and had begun to embrace her inty as a gay the ncert she felt liberated, she told the German broadster Dtsche Welle, bee “I was clarg myself a society that hat all that is different om the norm. She was tortured wh electric shocks, she later said terrogator challenged her to prove that homosexualy was not a disease. “One time he likened Communism to homosexualy, ” she wrote an article for Mada Masr, an pennt news media outlet.

'YOU N'T BE OUT': GAY EGYPTIANS NTUE TO FEAR PERSECUTN

Outsi, the harsht crackdown years agast Egypt’s gay muny was least 75 people were charged wh bchery raids nducted the days after the ncert, said Lobna Darwish, a genr rights rearcher at the Cairo-based Egyptian Iniative for Personal Rights. ”There was a rare moment of optimism for Egypt’s gay and transgenr muni last month when Hisham Salim, a famo actor, revealed that his 26-year-old dghter had transned to bee a son, days later, father and son were terviewed on televisn together, discsg their hardship but also sharg lghs and affectnate gtur. Selim, groundbreakg terview was hailed as a watershed moment for transgenr Egyptians, stokg hop of greater acceptance a society where they often suffer vilent the police ntued wh a crackdown on gay people, even durg the ronavis lockdown.

Some psychiatrists prcribe discreded forms of therapy an effort to “cure” people of their homosexualy, she said. In one recent se, a psychiatric stutn tried to duce that effect by admisterg electric shocks to a man while showg him gay Canada, Ms. More about Declan WalshA versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 10 of the New York edn wh the headle: Hnted by Torture and Rejectn, Gay Egyptian Activist Tak Her Life.