What is like to be a gay man livg Iraq? –

Contents:

• SCE VASN, GAYS IRAQ LEAD LIV OF NSTANT FEAR
• GAY BARS NEAR ME
• WHAT IS LIKE TO BE A GAY MAN LIVG IRAQ?
• THE BEST CAMBRIDGE GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS CAMBRIDGE
• ON STEALTHG | HOW A GAY BAR, AN IRAQI MAN, & A BATHROOM STALL FIXED ME
• GAYS LIVG SHADOWS OF NEW IRAQ
• GAY ZURICH
• THE 42 BT GAY BARS AMERI

SCE VASN, GAYS IRAQ LEAD LIV OF NSTANT FEAR

-led vasn 2003, he equented the cy’s gay blogs, onle chat rooms and dance clubs, where he wore flashy tight cloth, his hair long and loose to his the vasn, he and other gays and lbians were driven unrground by sectarian vlence and relig extremists. Report January ced attacks on gays by ants, as well as the existence of “relig urts, supervised by clerics, where homosexuals allegedly would be ‘tried, ’ ‘sentenced’ to ath and then executed.

”In October 2005, Iraq’s leadg Shie Mlim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, issued a fatwa, or relig cree, on his webse forbiddg homosexualy and clarg that gays and lbians should be “punished, fact, killed. ”“The people volved should be killed the worst, most severe way, ” the cree fatwa agast gay men was removed om Sistani’s webse last year, but was not revoked, said Ali Hili, an Iraqi gay-rights activist livg London who petned Sistani’s office to remove pil tails of the killgs of homosexuals, cludg photographs of victims, and posts them onle.

* Nouri, 29, a tailor the southern cy of Karbala who had received ath threats for beg gay and was behead Febary, Hili said. * Hazim, 21, of Baghdad also received threats, Hili said, and after police seized him at home Febary, his body was found wh several gunshots to the said his Alan, 26, who also was gay, was shot the head one day when he went to answer the door while the two were havg lunch.

GAY BARS NEAR ME

Difficult to discernGiven the pervasivens of sectarian vlence Iraq, ’s hard to tell whether such men are targeted for beg gay, said filmmaker Parvez Sharma, a gay Mlim based New York.

It is to be released this ’s film ncentrat on the prosecutn of 52 gay men arrted 2001 aboard a floatg nightclub on the Nile; they beme known as the “Cairo 52. “It’s very difficult to tell whether there is a pogrom of any sort to kill gay men, ” he said, but the environment for gays Iraq has clearly the 1980s, Baghdad and Cairo were gay social centers, Sharma said. Although Print Saddam Hse shut down many of Baghdad’s gay bars the 1990s and passed a law agast sodomy 2001, Iraqi gays and lbians still the 2003 vasn, a man who gave his name as Ahmed still cised Rubaie Street, a once popular gay thoroughfare the eastern Baghdad neighborhood of Zayuna, but he was not openly gay, he said.

WHAT IS LIKE TO BE A GAY MAN LIVG IRAQ?

He threatened to tell fellow soldiers that Ahmed was gay unls he paid a bribe of 160, 000 dars, about $ was a probable ath sentence, he paid, fled the untry for Amman, Jordan, and nsirs himself among the lucky on.

A 31-year-old gay pharmacist the mostly Sunni wt Baghdad neighborhood of Amiriya, said several of his iends were killed for beg gay. He spoke on ndn of anonymy, for fear that he might be dreams of gettg a visa to Swen, Germany or the Netherlands, which have accepted the bulk of Iraqi refuge, and then applyg for asylum bee of polil Uned Stat has regnized asylum claims by gays and lbians sce 1994, but the applitns of only about 14% of lbians and 16% of gay men have been approved, acrdg to the San Francis-based Asylum Documentatn Program of the Internatnal Gay and Lbian Human Rights Iraq, the wa for visas is long. “They have said they are tryg to improve human rights for all Iraqis, but they are not even willg to say there are gays Iraq.

THE BEST CAMBRIDGE GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS CAMBRIDGE

“The Iraqi people have been attacked all across Iraq -- not bee they are gay, but bee of the sectarian issue, ” she State Department has urged Iraq to prevent attacks on gays, spokwoman Janelle Hironim said, but the surgency and sectarian vlence have ma difficult for the ernment to protect human Rona, ternatnal legal director at New York-based Human Rights First, said the chaos shouldn’t stop the U.

), both openly gay lawmakers, sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice June mandg that she vtigate attacks on Iraqi gays and prsure Maliki to Earl Blumener (D-Ore. The bars are safe spac where members of the lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and tersex (LGBTI) muny n e together and celebrate their inti whout fear of discrimatn or judgement.

To fd gay bars your area, you n do a quick onle search or check out popular gay-iendly webs and apps such as Grdr, Her, and Gay Ci. The rourc n help you fd the perfect gay bar for you, whether you’re lookg for a laid-back neighborhood spot or a high-energy dance club. Many gay bars are safe havens for the LGBTI muny, and ’s important to be nsirate of others and follow the l of the tablishment.

ON STEALTHG | HOW A GAY BAR, AN IRAQI MAN, & A BATHROOM STALL FIXED ME

Followg on om our report March, OutNews Global spoke exclively wh two gay men om Sulaymaniyah about what life is really like for LGBT+ people Iraq.

Forced to flee Kamaran* scrib life for a gay man Iraq as a relentls stggle: “It’s like beg between four walls and hidg who you are om the muny, and even yourself. “There are still homophobic people that are also refuge om other untri, and once they know you are gay they make fun of you and verbally abe you.

GAYS LIVG SHADOWS OF NEW IRAQ

In a untry wh such strong relig and culture beliefs that ntue to fuel a fire of homophobia society, mt be challengg to meet other LGBT+ the first place?

This nightclub was undiluted gay culture; the unrground type that you see films, the roots of the roots, the place where body shamg to die. This progrs has been slow and cremental, spearhead by civil society efforts the regn to abolish laws that crimalize gay sex. The laws rerce societal prejudic, effectively givg tac legal sanctn for stigma, discrimatn, and vlence agast lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) people.

The laws are vaguely word, have broad latu, and sgle out nsensual gay sex the “sexual offens” sectn of the crimal that is otherwise rerved for crim like rape, ct, and sexual asslt.

GAY ZURICH

In July 2019, two gay men om Sat Vcent and the Grenad livg abroad filed a se challengg the nstutnaly of the discrimatory provisns the crimal .

Along wh Domi, Guyana, Grenada, Jamai, Sat Lucia—the other five untri the Caribbean that crimalize gay sex—Sat Vcent and the Grenad ntu to be an outlier a hemisphere that has chewed the crimalizatn of nsensual gay sex. Every LGBT person terviewed by Human Rights Watch said they wished to leave the untry immediately or had envisned their future abroad due, part, to the homophobic or transphobic vlence and discrimatn the untry. Some terviewe noted that fay rejectn was often uched moralistic terms, echog the homophobic rhetoric preached some church, which are a rnerstone of social life and shape social attus.

THE 42 BT GAY BARS AMERI

In ls than a , five Caribbean untri have crimalized gay sex, brgg the Wtern Hemisphere closer to beg pletely ee of the discrimatory laws. Decrimalizatn may also facilate the ernment’s abily to further addrs homophobic and transphobic discrimatn var sectors, such as work and tn.

Six untri the English-speakg Caribbean—Domi, Grenada, Guyana, Jamai, and Sat Lucia, addn to Sat Vcent and the Grenad—ntue to crimalize gay sex. In 2018, after a group of people publicly attacked two genr non-nformg dividuals prumed to be gay Calliaqua town, Gonsalv stated: “Jt let them be. Man said that 2019, he was attacked his neighborhood, and he believed the attack uld have been motivated by his sexual orientatn sce many people there know that he is gay.