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

Contents:

• QATAR HAS TAKEN 'REAL STEPS' FOR SAFETY OF GAY FANS, SAYS FOREIGN SECRETARY
• AS QATAR BE FOC OF LGBTQ MPAIGNS, WHERE ELSE THE WORLD IS ILLEGAL TO BE GAY?
• GAY PEOPLE LIVG UNR RADAR QATAR PREPARE WARILY FOR WORLD CUP

QATAR HAS TAKEN 'REAL STEPS' FOR SAFETY OF GAY FANS, SAYS FOREIGN SECRETARY

(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.

“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.

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. 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.

AS QATAR BE FOC OF LGBTQ MPAIGNS, WHERE ELSE THE WORLD IS ILLEGAL TO BE GAY?

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. 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. “If you’re an expat, you’re able to live your life like you want, ” a gay Arab man livg Doha told Rters.

But there have been mixed msag wh a World Cup ambassador and former footballer Khalid Salman sayg earlier this month that homosexualy was “damage the md, ” an terview wh German broadster ZDF. He is a regular at England ternatnals and was once the victim of a homophobic asslt, he says, at Wembley four years ago, ahead of England’s match agast Spa 2018, when he had an altertn wh another fan.

Rints of Qatar face the risk of persecutn if they stand up for gay rights durg the World Cup, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has warned. ”UK mister Jam Cleverly lls for gay World Cup fans to show rpect Qatar – vioRints have long faced discrimatn om the state.

GAY PEOPLE LIVG UNR RADAR QATAR PREPARE WARILY FOR WORLD CUP

Siar s have been reported prevly as well: s Our Inti Unr Arrt report, ILGA World documented s when crimalisg laws had been enforced as early as 1995, when a US cizen was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment and 90 lash for alleged “homosexual activy”. In 1997, 36 gay Filipo migrant workers were ported om the untry on acunt of their sexual orientatn, and 2013 Qatar was one of the untri the Gulf Cooperatn Council that was explorg a ban on LGBT foreigners om workg the regn.

In 2016, an 18- year-old-gay social media fluencer om Poland was jail for almost two months, and his arrt had not been rerd for 10 days. Lbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer people have the right to fair, accurate and clive reportg of their life stori and ncerns.

Signifint progrs has been difficult, sce Poland has been facg a le-of-law crisis gog back to at least 2017, when the right-wg Law and Jtice, or PiS party began spreadg s fluence on key bodi such as the Constutnal crisis the judiciary ns so ep that the EU iated Article 7 proceedgs agast Poland, which spend certa rights for member stat if they are emed to persistently be breach of the EU’s fundamental European Commissn lnched legal proceedgs agast Poland at the European Court of Jtice (ECJ), a se known as Commissn v Poland, and the ECJ orred Poland to spend the laws that terfere wh the pennce of the ignored the the untry’s Human Rights Ombudsman, Marc Wiącek, has cid to tackle both the homophobic rolutns and the falterg legal system at the same Office of the Ombudsman, while formally an stutn fanced by the ernment, exists many untri as an pennt one-man state body wh the mandate to lnch quiri to vlatns of human rights perpetrated by any stutn or body the his electn was marred by difficulty, wh PiS blockg the opposn-backed ndidate for 10 months.