Aug 20 2009
Being Gay in Iraq sucks!
For all the bigotry and discrimination LGBT people may feel they have to suffer in the western world, its nothing compared to being LGBT in Iraq. Human Rights Watch has reported that hundreds of gay and bisexual men have been hunted down by death squads or become the targets of honour killings from their own families.
Story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8204853.stm
Worse still Human Rights Watch also asserts that Iraqi security forces have actually “colluded and joined in the killing.”
The rise of anti-gay violence in Iraq is almost certainly due to the rising power of Islamic Militias following the fall of Saddam and a fragile democratic government, who in a deeply Islamic country, finds it politically inconvenient to challenge religious intolerance.
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10 Responses to “Being Gay in Iraq sucks!”
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Yeah, this puts my frustration in perspective. I’m so upset about DADT (Don’t Ask Don’t Tell). I’ve thought about joining the air force and was upset that i might be fired because of my sexuality if I joined.
But yeah, obviously being killed and hunted down is a lot different than being court martialed and dishonourably discharged.
I’ve never really understood DADT, most objections to homosexuality have their origins in religious bigotry, which as a secular government institution the US Armed Forces are not blighted by. The whole sexual relationships can be distracting argument goes out the window once they allowed women into the services.
Worthy of an article I think.
You may think that the US Armed Forces are a secular government institution, but as the US Government isn’t truly secular, you can’t expect that their Armed Forces will be either.
Oh, and it has something to do with soldiers being distracted by other soldier’s arses and therefore not being able to fight as well as they should… or some such nonsense. The same argument that they used to prevent women from joining the military and fighting in the front line initially.
They’ll possibly get over it one day.
Truth be told I find it a paradox how strong religion is a factor in US politics, who officially have a seperation between church and state… yet no British politician would dare discuss their Christian credentials, and we don’t have such an official seperation to my knowledge.
I got the impression don’t ask don’t tell had something to do with other soldiers feeling threatened if they had to shower with gay/bi men or something, no idea. Being both visually impaired and not really wanting to get involved in violence it never worried me. It might be possible they would have to deal with a “Are you looking at my ?” argument, but I’ve no clue how likely it is.
“…most objections to homosexuality have their origins in religious bigotry”.
Now really, Bitheway, I know you’ve got a bit of a thing about religion, but don’t overlook the damage done by dodgy, and supposedly progressive, science in the nineteenth and early twenthieth century, which categorised homosexuality as a disease and set about trying to cure it with a range of bizarre and damaging methods. As Alex Comfort points out, certain faiths recognise that if something is understood to be sinful it can be confessed and forgiven, whereas if it is diagnosed as a disease it has to be cured. The same dodgy science also thought it could cure young men of the urge to masturbate – unsurprisingly, such attempts proved unsuccessful, though I dread to think what damage was done in the process.
On DADT, Anon is quite right that there were huge concerns about soldiers sharing barracks and showers with gay and bi men. This seems a strange concern given that many gay and bi guys share changing rooms and showers in sports clubs with other guys without any problems arising, particularly as straight guys are as likely as anybody else to take a look when guys are all naked together!
Particularly when considering many straight men aren’t quite as “straight” as they think they are.
Anon,
You hit the target…… Not all men who say they are straight are “STRAIGHT”. I know for fact that many men who I would have never in my wildest dreams think of being gay/bi because of their homophobea.
I really love the whole article on DADT Being as the fact that im a Bisexual US Soldier myself who just recently returned from war and is now stationed in germany it really is hard on us in the modern millitary I myself have a few frineds who i can tell and the ones that I have opened up to even the ones that i didnt expect to be be open and ok with it were completely fine with it and one was my roomate in iraq its not so much hard on us in the millitary because of our fellow soldiers for the simple fact that even as a man attracted to men and women i dont usually find myself attracted to my fellow soldiers and so far it seems to be the same for my friends that ive spoken to in the army both the gays straights and bis its the public in general and the uniform millitary code of justice that makes it hard on us because we cant be who we are so we tend to be more secretive and also more stressed out most of the soldiers ive talked to about ti didnt really care when i told them as long as i did my job yes there is always going to be the few who would go against us but hell soldiers stick up for soldiers period and the it wouldnt last long srry for all the sentax and grammar mistakes but i hope I got a little bit of my point across and helped to shed some light on this subject
Obama has announced that he will end DADT – sounds like a result. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8301120.stm
Fingers crossed on that. I remember when Bush announced he’d end the death penalty back when he first took office, but there is a slight difference…
Bush was a grade A pr**k. I hate to be so crude but honestly its hard to deny for any rational person.