Gay people livg unr radar Qatar prepare warily for World Cup | Rters

Contents:

• GAY QATARIS PHYSILLY ABED THEN RECED AS AGENTS, MPAIGNER SAYS
• GAY PEOPLE LIVG UNR RADAR QATAR PREPARE WARILY FOR WORLD CUP

GAY QATARIS PHYSILLY ABED THEN RECED AS AGENTS, MPAIGNER SAYS

(Beit) – Qatar Preventive Secury Department forc have arbrarily arrted lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) people and subjected them to ill-treatment tentn, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch terviewed six LGBT Qataris, cludg four transgenr women, one bisexual woman, and one gay man. Doctor Nasser Mohamed, an openly gay Qatari activist, helped nnect Human Rights Watch to five of those terviewed.

“You gays are immoral, so we will be the same to you, ” she said one officer told her. “I saw many other LGBT people taed there: two Morocn lbians, four Filipo gay men, and one Nepale gay man, ” she said. A Qatari gay man who has experienced ernment reprsn, cludg arbrary arrt, said that secury forc surveilled and arrted him based on his onle activy.

GAY PEOPLE LIVG UNR RADAR QATAR PREPARE WARILY FOR WORLD CUP

Qatari law crimaliz sex outsi marriage, cludg gay sex. In the terpretatn of Sharia law that Qatar follows, sex outsi of marriage, cludg homosexualy, is punishable by jail time and, as a maximum sentence, ath by stong, though there isn’t available evince that such a punishment has ever been ed. Nasser Mohamed, a gay Qatari livg exile the US, explaed to Vox.

So ’s really hard to build a gay muny. Mohamed left Qatar his 20s for medil school “wh the tentn of never g back” bee of the limed life he led as a gay man there.

Though there are small pockets of LGBTQ people Qatar, there’s not a gay scene, Mohamed said. “If you’re an expat, you’re able to live your life like you want, ” a gay Arab man livg Doha told Rters.

I know gay men workers’ mps wouldn’t be able to live the same way. As the first and currently only Qatari to publicly e out as gay, Mohamed­—a doctor who has lived the U.

But given homosexualy is crimalized Qatar, he is likely to rema s only member for the foreeable future. In the months sce, Mohamed lnched the non-prof Alwan Foundatn to advance LGBTQ+ rights across the Middle East and pecially Qatar, where he says that secury operativ filtrate gay muni orr to torture and erce members to rm on others.

TIME: As a gay Qatari, do you feel that hostg the World Cup n brg change? Is there an unrground gay scene or is that too dangero?

There are some people om really affluent fai that are gay and ’s almost public knowledge—but they’re really wealthy, affluent, and very nnected, so people jt don’t say anythg. But even the most powerful gay [person] Qatar is powerls some ways. They uld gaybash and get away wh wh no nsequenc at all.

And if such an attack happens on a gay fan, I don’t know of the [secury] rourc to help them. Bee you uld be harmed, you n be gay bashed, you n be beaten, and people may not be able to help you. Homosexualy⚢✖ Male illegal, female uncertaCensorship✖ State-enforcedNon-bary genr regnn✖ Not legally regnizedDiscrimatn✖ No protectnsEmployment Discrimatn✖ No protectnsHog Discrimatn✖ No protectnsConversn Therapy✖ Not banned.