Human Rights Watch: Anti-gay laws promote vlence, discrimatn St. Vcent

Contents:

• ACTIVISTS NMN VLENCE AGAST LGBTQ MUNY ST. VCENT, WHERE GAY SEX IS ILLEGAL
• HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: ANTI-GAY LAWS PROMOTE VLENCE, DISCRIMATN ST. VCENT
• PERIL AND PRIVILEGE: GAY EXPAT NIGHTLIFE DUBAI

ACTIVISTS NMN VLENCE AGAST LGBTQ MUNY ST. VCENT, WHERE GAY SEX IS ILLEGAL

In September, the ernment directed schools across the UAE to ensure that teachers “rea… om discsg genr inty, homosexualy or any other behavur emed unacceptable to UAE society” classrooms. Dpe state-sponsored reprsn and social stigma, lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) people the Middle East and North Ai are fdg ways to speak out. They are tellg their stori, buildg allianc, workg across borrs, velopg natnal and regnal movements, and fdg creative ways to bat homophobia and transphobia.

They relied on a “bchery” law that had been ed the early 2000s agast gay men and transgenr women and was revived wh a vengeance followg the 2013 up, when the ernment, led by Print Abl Fattah al-Sisi, appeared to embrace persecutn of gays and trans people as a polil strategy. The majory of the terviewe intified as lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, or queer, while a few intified as heterosexual and cisgenr (see glossary) but were eply engaged activist work supportg LGBT people. One terviewee, om Bahra, intified as gay but did not intify as an activist; he spoke wh Human Rights Watch about the relative absence of an LGBT rights movement Bahra.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: ANTI-GAY LAWS PROMOTE VLENCE, DISCRIMATN ST. VCENT

The report also builds upon prev rearch nducted by Human Rights Watch wh LGBT activists and other LGBT people Lebanon, Tunisia, Moroc, Egypt, Kuwa, Iraq, and the Uned Arab Emirat, and on Human Rights Watch’s prev reportg on vlatns agast LGBT people the regn, cludg the reports Digny Debased: Forced Anal Examatns Homosexualy Prosecutns (2016); “It’s Part of the Job”: Ill-treatment and Torture of Vulnerable Groups Lebane Police Statns (2013); “‘They Hunt Down for Fun’: Discrimatn and Police Vlence Agast Transgenr Women Kuwa (2012); “They Want Us Extermated”: Murr, Torture, Sexual Orientatn and Genr Iraq (2009); and In a Time of Torture: The Asslt on Jtice In Egypt's Crackdown on Homosexual Conduct (2004).

PERIL AND PRIVILEGE: GAY EXPAT NIGHTLIFE DUBAI

[7] Egypt is a serial offenr terms of systematic e of such provisns agast LGBT people: a law prohibg “bchery, ” ially promulgated 1951 for the purpose of crimalizg sex work and then replaced by Law 10/1961 on the Combatg of Prostutn, has been ed by the thori sce the 1990s to prosecute homosexual nduct between men, rultg hundreds of arrts. Acrdg to one report, 127 people were arrted at an alleged “gay party” 2011, some drsed drag, spe of there beg no law that clearly punish beg gay or drsg drag.

While several untri other regns have adopted laws prohibg “promotg homosexualy, ” no such law exists the Middle East and North Ai. However, Egypt, a provisn on “cement to bchery” the 1961 law on batg prostutn was ed September 2017 agast young people spected of raisg the rabow flag at a Mashrou’ Leila ncert, and agast other people who were prosecuted after g gay datg apps or chat rooms.

Acrdg to an analysis by the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr and Intersex Associatn (ILGA), laws regulatg non-ernmental anizatns Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Moroc, Bahra, Jordan, Kuwa, Oman, Qatar, Sdi Arabia, and the Uned Arab Emirat make virtually impossible for anizatns workg on issu of sexual orientatn and genr inty to legally register. In Libya, the overthrow of Muammar Qaddafi rulted a power vacuum which ias wield signifint power; several of them have nducted arbrary arrts of men on spicn of homosexualy. [31] The rise of the anizatn known as Islamic State (also known as ISIS), which killed dozens of gay men, as discsed below, has been creded part to s abily to “fill the power vacuum created by failg stat” the wake of the 2011 uprisgs.

Mubarak’s ernment had overseen a massive crackdown on gay men the early 2000s, tend part, acrdg to one Egyptian activist, “to prent an image as the guardian of public virtue, to flate an Islamist opposn movement that appear[ed] to be gag support every day. I stood up, my body quiverg, and said: “Gay rights are human rights, we need to accept the fact that many people shoutg ‘long live the people!

At the same time, some activists have raised ncern that a narrow foc on ISIS’ horrific anti-LGBT ab may distract om ab by ernments and their proxi who are also rponsible for homophobic and transphobic vlence. In 2009, fighters spected of affiliatn wh Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi army, an armed group which publicly vilified gay and effemate men as “the third sex, ” kidnapped, tortured and murred as many as several hundred men a matter of months, most of them Baghdad. [45] In 2014, Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq killed several men who were, or who were perceived to be, gay and put up “wanted” posters for others.

An Iraqi activist livg another untry the regn said that although he is “out” as gay to a broad circle of iends, he mt be ut when anizg events that uld out him more publicly—not out of fear of what might happen to him his host untry, but bee of what might happen if he is ever returned to Iraq. Torture sometim tak the form of forced anal examatns, which often volve doctors or other medil personnel forcibly sertg their fgers, and sometim other objects, to the an of the acced to fd purported “proof” of homosexual nduct. [58] Human Rights Watch also received reports of police Syria and the Uned Arab Emirat orrg gay men to unrgo forced anal ttg, but has not penntly verified the allegatns.