‘They kill people like us,’ says gay Iraqi
Message to Carrie Prejean, Maggie Gallagher, Stephen Baldwin and all of the other Christians who insist they’re being “persecuted” because LGBT people and their allies have the audacity to object to their anti-gay bigotry; this is actual persecution.
BAGHDAD – Widespread violence is down across Baghdad, but not for one minority group.
Iraq’s gay population is being targeted by militia groups in a wave of killings that has claimed the lives of up to 25 young men and boys in the past month.
“They know I am gay. I don’t know if I am going to be killed, this is up to God,” said Moyad, a 38-year-old Baghdad resident who would not give his last name out of fear for his safety.
Visibly frightened, he said that he has many friends who have been sadistically tortured, some even murdered. “They are sticking glue up their anuses; some hospitals refuse to treat them. Is it a war waged against homosexuals?” he asked.
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Posters and leaflets have been distributed in the Baghdad neighborhoods of al-Shola, al-Hurya and Sadr City with orders to, “Cleanse Iraq from the crime of homosexuality.”
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Moyad described a recent crusade by vigilantes in which young men were tortured with hoses and shot.”For some time I never went out of my house,” he said. “I also had the feeling that they would break in and get me.”
…..Moyad believes that many have been killed by their own families in an effort to preserve their honor. “My friend Ahmed, from the neighborhood of Zafaraniya, was killed by his family for looking like a female. Those commandos tell the families to kill them or else they will kill them. I expect that my own brother might lead those guys to kill me.”
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Moyad said that unfortunately things have actually gotten worse than it was during Saddam’s reign things. “I was imprisoned because I was gay, but there was a court, a trial, and the judge let me loose at the time; now they kill people like us.”
There are, of course, people right here in the US who would very much like to see LGBT people put to death for the “crime” of being who we are. NOM’s newest board member Orson Scott Card, for example, wants homosexuality to be re-criminalized. Were it that they had their way it would be difficult to discern the difference between Iraq and the US but for the god worshiped by “the majority”.
Related posts:
“Christian Bashing” vs. Gay Bashing; A Primer.
Another Year in Hate
The Year in Hate
