Openly gay lawyer seeks Tunisian princy first for Arab world

Contents:

• OPENLY GAY LAWYER SEEKS TUNISIAN PRINCY FIRST FOR ARAB WORLD
• LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE
• THE 'NIGHTMARE' OF BEG GAY TUNISIA
• PRéSINTIELLE TUNISIENNE : QUI T MOUNIR BAATOUR, LE PREMIER NDIDAT OUVERTEMENT GAY ?
• 11 U.S. PRINTS WHO MIGHT’VE BEEN GAY
• PETE BUTTIGIEG SAYS THERE HAVE PROBABLY BEEN GAY PRINTS. HERE'S WHY THAT THEORY IS COMPLITED
• TUNISIA HAS S FIRST OPENLY GAY NDIDATE FOR PRINT
• POLICE ARRT LEADG GAY ACTIVIST CRACKDOWN ON TUNISIA RALLY

OPENLY GAY LAWYER SEEKS TUNISIAN PRINCY FIRST FOR ARAB WORLD

For the first time, an openly gay ndidate has thrown his hat the rg for a printial electn Tunisia.

Baatour, a lawyer at Tunisia’s hight urt and the print of Shams, a group seekg the crimalisatn of homosexualy the untry, has officially applied for a spot on the ballot ahead of the September 15 printial electn.

"The fact that I'm gay don't change anythg. ‘Liberate Tunisia om the old parti’In Tunisia, homosexualy is punishable by three years prison. He argu that persecutn of homosexuals was ls pervasive before 2011, the year Ennahda first joed a erng aln the wake of the Arab Sprg uprisg that toppled longtime lear Ze al-Abide Ben Ali.

LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE

Congratulatns and wishg you well @mounirbaatour Tunisia printial electn I was 1st openly gay major-party ndidate to n for print US 8 years ago We face many obstacl but will give hope to lns and make easier for all who follow our path ?️‍??️‍? Fred Karger (@edkarger) Augt 10, 2019. Regnised abroad for his gay rights work – Baatour won France’s Idaho Prize for his efforts 2018 – he had already assembled the 10, 000 signatur need to get his name on the printial ballot a month ago.

Meanwhile, a number of gay rights groups have sought to distance themselv om Baatour’s bid, postg a petn onle claimg he “do not reprent the LGBTIQ+ muny or our movements Tunisia”, although the iative has so far gathered only two-thirds of s 500-signature target.

THE 'NIGHTMARE' OF BEG GAY TUNISIA

“It is hard to tell which posn will hurt Baatour’s electoral chanc more, his stance on gay rights or his support for normalisatn wh Israel”, the left-leang daily nclud.

Un homme polique tunisien en lice pour venir le premier présint son pays ouvertement homosexuel a déclaré qu’il alla faire prsn pour dépénaliser le sexe gay et a sisté pour que sa ndidature ne so pas défie par sa sexualé. Mounir Baatour père changer l perceptns dans ce pays nord-ai nservatr, où l’homosexualé t punissable d’une pee pouvant aller jqu’à trois ans prison. L torés d’un pays majorairement mulman appliquent régulièrement la loi ntre le sexe gay, et un récent sondage Arab Barometer pour la BBC a révélé que slement 7% s coyens jugent l’homosexualé acceptable.

PRéSINTIELLE TUNISIENNE : QUI T MOUNIR BAATOUR, LE PREMIER NDIDAT OUVERTEMENT GAY ?

L ndamnatns pour relatns homosexuell ont gmenté 60% l’an rnier, passant 79 en 2017 à 127, ntre 127 en 2017, selon Shams, qui documente l arrtatns et l s. Baatour, du pet parti libéral tunisien, t un outsir qui a p chanc l’emporter, mais son statut ndidat à la présince ouvertement homosexuel lui a valu l’attentn. Il s’t engagé à abolir l’article 230 du pénal, qui crimalise l relatns entre personn du même sexe, gmente l pe pour agrsn homophobe et permet x personn transgenr changer d’inté juridique.

« Je pense que 60 ans après l’dépendance, no vons avoir la volonté polique d’imposer une réforme et dire x gens qu’il t anormal mettre s homosexuels en prison. Selon l’Associatn ternatnale s lbienn, gays, bisexuels, trans et tersexuels (ILGA), mos la moié s pays ais ont légalisé le sexe gay et sle l’Aique du Sud torise le mariage gay.

Baatour a déclaré qu’il ne souhaa être perçu que me un policien homosexuel et que s poliqu vont l’amélratn l’énomie à la légalisatn du nnabis. Latvia swore the first openly gay print of a Baltic natn Rkēvičs, who sce 2011 was the untry’s foreign mister, was elected by Parliament May after Print Egils Levs did not seek re-electn.

11 U.S. PRINTS WHO MIGHT’VE BEEN GAY

”Rkēvičs “proudly” announced he is gay on Twter November 2014, though the untry, a former Soviet republic, is not pecially LGBTQ-clive. ” He said he knew there would be “mega hysteria, ” but he end wh the hashtag “#Proudtobegay.

”He is one of jt a few openly gay heads of state the world. She is thought to be the first openly gay prime mister the was an active unnist her nearly 10 years workg as a flight attendant, acrdg to the Council of Women World Lears, a work of female heads of state.

After the accatn, he said, he was chased down the street by reporters, one of whom yelled, “Yet they say you’re a homosexual! ”Xavier Bettel Prime Mister of Luxembourg (2013-prent)Luxembourg Prime Mister Xavier Bettel at a news nference Belgra, Serbia, on July Vojovic / APBettel was first elected prime mister of Luxembourg 2013, and 2018 he beme the first openly gay prime mister the world to be re-elected for a send marriage beme legal Luxembourg 2015, and the same year Bettel beme the first servg European Unn lear to marry a same-sex partner, the BBC recently cricized a Hungarian law that bans school tnal materials and TV shows for people unr 18 that are emed to promote LGBTQ ntent, Rters reported. “To be natnally blamed, to be nsired as not normal, to be nsired as a danger for young people — ’s not realizg that beg gay is not a choice, ” Bettel said, acrdg to Rters.

PETE BUTTIGIEG SAYS THERE HAVE PROBABLY BEEN GAY PRINTS. HERE'S WHY THAT THEORY IS COMPLITED

Gay, lbian and bisexual people n serve the ary, but transgenr people nnot.

TUNISIA HAS S FIRST OPENLY GAY NDIDATE FOR PRINT

“Hopefully this will blow over three or four days, and then I won’t be known as the gay mister, ” she told The Associated Prs at the Varadkar Prime Mister of Ireland (2017-20, 2022-prent)Irish Prime Mister Leo Varadkar Bssels on June 30. Ludovic Mar / AFP - Getty Imag fileVaradkar beme Ireland’s first openly gay Taoiseach, or prime mister, 2017 and served until 2020. Belhadj, who was 38 years old at the time, was charged wh homosexual activy and taed the civil prison of Mornaguia, southwt of the Tunisian pal.

Belhadj's story is all-too faiar Tunisia, where the crimalizatn of homosexualy ntradicts the right to privacy and nondiscrimatn that is supposedly enshred Tunisia's 2014 nstutn. "Yet homosexualy is crimalized unr Article 230 of the Tunisian penal , which dat back to the French lonial era. His oral shows what is like livg as an LGBTQ person a untry where homosexualy is nmned and illegal, and the social stigma of beg exposed n have dire nsequenc on people's a recent terview wh Democracy Exile, Belhadj said that his se was overwhelmgly publicized whout his knowledge while he was prison.

"Belhadj's story is all-too faiar Tunisia, where the crimalizatn of homosexualy ntradicts the right to privacy and nondiscrimatn that is supposedly enshred the nstutn. Ali Boselmi, the executive director of Mawjoud—"We Exist, " Arabic—a Tunisian NGO fightg for LGBTQ rights, nfirmed Belhadj's acunt of prison and scribed the majory of Tunisian society as homophobic. "After the revolutn 2011, thgs have changed, but homophobia persists.

POLICE ARRT LEADG GAY ACTIVIST CRACKDOWN ON TUNISIA RALLY

"When Mounir Baatour, who is also the head of Tunisia's Liberal Party, announced 2019 that he would n for the untry's princy, he beme the first openly gay printial ndidate not only Tunisia but throughout the Arab world.