Amid Egypt's anti-gay crackdown, gay datg apps send tips to stop entrapment | Rters

Contents:

• GAY DATG EGYPT
• GAY DATG APPS ARE PROTECTG USERS AMID EGYPT'S LGBTQ CRACKDOWN
• AMID EGYPT'S ANTI-GAY CRACKDOWN, GAY DATG APPS SEND TIPS TO STOP ENTRAPMENT
• 'YOU N'T BE OUT': GAY EGYPTIANS NTUE TO FEAR PERSECUTN
• GAY DATG APPS GRDR AND HOR HELP LGBT EGYPTIANS STAY SAFE AMID CRACKDOWN
• BT GAY DATG APPS FOR HOOKUPS, RELATNSHIPS, AND EVERYTHG BETWEEN
• GAY EGYPT TRAVEL GUI
• EGYPTIAN POLICE ARE G GRDR AND OTHER DATG APPS TO ARRT GAY MEN

GAY DATG EGYPT

Media ptn, Watch: Ahmed Shihab-Eld meets a member of the LGBT muny who has been targetedIn Egypt, homosexualy is highly stigmatised, and there have long been allegatns that police are huntg LGBT people onle. Now BBC News has seen evince of how the thori are g datg and social apps to do victims' nam have been changed Havg grown up Egypt, I am aware of the pervasive homophobia that permeat every part of s society.

There is no explic law agast homosexualy Egypt, but our vtigatn has found that the crime of "bchery" - a sex work law - is beg ed to crimalise the LGBT muny.

In one transcript, police scribe intifyg a foreigner, who we are llg Matt, on the popular gay datg app Grdr. One such victim, whom we found through the transcripts, was a gay man we are llg Lah. Lah says the police also tried to get him to rm on other gay people he knew ptn, Lah (right) - the inti of all our ntributors need to be disguisedHow we disguised ntributors' intiFor the BBC documentary Queer Egypt Unr Attack we ed novative face-trackg 3-D maskg to ensure inti remaed protected - the aim was to give the film a more attractive athetic than the ual blobbg technique of disguise allows.

GAY DATG APPS ARE PROTECTG USERS AMID EGYPT'S LGBTQ CRACKDOWN

'" The Egyptian ernment has spoken publicly about s e of onle surveillance to target what scribed as "homosexual gathergs" 2020, Ahmed Taher, former assistant to the Mister of Interr for Inter Crim and Human Traffickg, told the newspaper Ahl Masr: "We reced police the virtual world to unver the mass of group sex parti, homosexual gathergs.

They are forced at knife pot to give their full nam and adm they are gay. In one of the vios, an 18-year-old gay man we are llg Saeed is forced to, falsely, say he is a sex worker. It shocked me to learn, the urse of vtigatn that one gang lear, Yahia, is gay and actively postg onle about his own sex perhaps giv him a crimal edge - he knows jt how vulnerable his targets are.

And arguably his own posn, as a gay man wh ltle opportuny, fuels his crimaly. 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.

AMID EGYPT'S ANTI-GAY CRACKDOWN, GAY DATG APPS SEND TIPS TO STOP ENTRAPMENT

“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.

They had met onle, part of a growg muny of gay Egyptians g servic like Grdr, Hor, and Growler, but this was their first time meetg person. Targets meet a iendly stranger on a gay datg se, sometim talkg for weeks before meetg person, only to fd out they’re beg targeted for a bchery se. The most recent wave of arrts started last September after an dience member unfurled a gay pri flag at a rock ncert, somethg the regime took as a personal sult.

Homosexualy isn’t illegal Egypt, but the LGBTQ muny has bee a eful spegoat for the el-Sisi regime, and the General Directorate for Protectg Public Moraly is beg ed to jail and prosecute anyone perceived as mtg a transgrsn. Raids on bars, hoe parti, and other gay spac have bee mon.

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

Both apps were built amid a thrivg, sex-posive gay culture. In plac where the gay muny has been driven unrground, datg apps are often the only way to reach them — somethg that’s led a number of nonprofs to seek out Grdr as a rearch tool. “So many guys will get on Grdr who have never told anyone they’re gay, ” says Jack Harrison-Qutana, the director of Grdr’s social-good divisn, Grdr For Equaly.

Lebanon is seen as one of the bt plac to be gay the regn, even though homosexualy is still illegal there.

GAY DATG APPS GRDR AND HOR HELP LGBT EGYPTIANS STAY SAFE AMID CRACKDOWN

“It’s much more difficult to create an app that functns well for gay men the Middle East, ” Kayyali told me. “In untri where ’s unsafe to be gay, where there are no gay bars, no clive sports teams, and no queer performance spac, the Grdr app provis our ers wh an opportuny to fd their muni, ” Qutana-Harrison told me.

BT GAY DATG APPS FOR HOOKUPS, RELATNSHIPS, AND EVERYTHG BETWEEN

“Gay men will not go back to the closet. “The crackdown awakened the homophobia of the mass. People are cheerg for the arrts of the gays.

The Egyptian Iniative for Personal Rights, a lol human rights group, said at least 232 people who were LGBT, or perceived to be, were arrted between 2013 and rights activists have warned of police officers g gay datg apps to entrap ers, lurg them to meetgs only to arrt them. Several gay datg app pani and LGBT Egyptians said they did not know of an stance where police ed entrapment the current crackdown, but they did worry about the practice spread of smartphon and ubiquo ter e have created new risks, acrdg to Stt Long, a longtime human rights activist focg on LGBT issu. “This mak really easy, on the one hand, for homophobic propaganda om onle media to sort of show up your face, and I thk ’s helpg to doctrate the public, ” Long, who lived Egypt om 2012 to 2016, told ABC News.

GAY EGYPT TRAVEL GUI

“And I thk, on the other hand, the apps have ma gay and trans people more vulnerable. ”Apps move to protect ersA variety of gay datg apps have proliferated Egypt recent years, givg LGBT people a new way to make iends and chase arrts have led several of the apps to re-exame the protectns they offer their ers app Hor sends general safety remendatns to s Arabic-speakg ers, which the pany said number over one ln, like holdg vio lls before meetg person and checkg wh iends before and after ers of Scff travel to one of more than 80 untri wh lims on same-sex acts, cludg Egypt, they receive an alert and rmatn about rtrictns. “At the end of the day, people -- gay people, straight people -- they’re gog to want to nnect, they’re gog to want to meet, ” Eric Silverberg, Scff's CEO, told ABC News.

“Meetg onle has jt bee such an important part of a gay person’s evolutn, pecially for young people. Happs turns to fearWhile secury servic have picked up their persecutn of LGBT people recent years, was not always clear that the crackdown this fall would grow to what some believe is the worst wave Mohamed, a 30-year-old gay man om Cairo, saw the rabow flags raised at the Mashrou’ Leila ncert, he ially was, Egyptian media lnched tira after tira agast LGBT people. Mohamed quickly leted photos, text msag and gay datg apps om his phone, and started g an encrypted munitns app.

“They arrted people randomly bee the police know gay guys’ meetg plac.

EGYPTIAN POLICE ARE G GRDR AND OTHER DATG APPS TO ARRT GAY MEN

”Harsher penalti proposedMeanwhile, sr of Egyptian legislators are lobbyg for a law that would explicly crimalize homosexual acts to ensure harsher penalti by replacg a 1961 anti-prostutn law that has been ed agast LGBT people for s. “Homosexualy” is not clearly fed or mentned Egyptian law, so thori have been prosecutg LGBT people unr charg of “habual bchery” that n send them to jail for up to three than 60 Egyptian members of parliament have backed a bill that for the first time would explicly punish those who engage “homosexual” acts or promote “homosexualy. ‘Miserably prsed’A gay man Cairo who attend the Mashrou’ Leila ncert told ABC News he knew three people who were arrted.

”Seekg a way outWhile not everyone is ready to give up their life Egypt, some don’t thk they have a real 2011, Egyptian Samer Habib, who is gay, moved to Canada to attend llege. “But of urse, there’s no gettg around the fact that the culture is embedd wh homophobia, and there’s nothg really I n do to change that. ’”Transgenr people Egypt are generally viewed through a different lens than gay or bisexual people.