100 People Killed in Iraq (the one we liberated) for Being GAY
As many as 100 people have been killed in Iraq for being gay since news broke in March of this year that so-called "emo" individuals were being targeted.
A BBC investigation has found that Iraqi authorities are responsible for a surge in anti-gay violence, causing some young people in Baghdad to hide in their homes or flee to safe houses around the city.
"Murders of gays by militiamen in Iraq have been well-documented. But evidence that has been uncovered shows that the government is complicit in systematic and organized persecution of homosexuals," reported Natalia Antelava from Baghdad yesterday, in a BBC program that detailed the lengths the government will go to to eradicate homosexuality in post-Saddam, post-war Iraq.
The severe uptick in murders and attacks on gay people can be traced to an Iraqi Interior Ministry announcement in February, which expressed support for attacks on emos, saying they are "satanic and must be eradicated."
The London-based non-profit advocacy organization Iraq LGBT also accuses the government of being behind the killings and believes "the Ministry of the Interior tracks sexual minorities with the aim of eliminating them," through keeping lists and forcing those arrested homosexuals to inform on their friends and boyfriends under duress.
"Instead of protecting sexual minorities, the Iraqi government facilitates their murder by arresting the victims and handing them over to militias who kill them," wrote Iraq LGBT founder Ali Hilli in a recent BBC editorial. "Iraqi LGBT sources working inside Iraq have found the militias are also getting intelligence about the identities of sexual minorities from the Ministry of the Interior."
The Guardian reports that it's nearly impossible to put a finger on who's actually responsible for carrying out the killings, noting that "many of the killings happened in east Baghdad, stronghold of Shia militias such as Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi army and Asaib Ahl al-Haq." However, the police force and Interior Ministry are also known to have militia members among their ranks.
Although homosexuality is not illegal in Iraq like some of its neighboring countries, many gay people have recounted the same story: friends and lovers have been beaten or taken, without arrest warrants, and sometimes never come back.
The United Nations confirmed that at least 12 people had been killed for being emo, short for 'emotional,' which began in the West as a particular kind of hard rock music with its own genre of fashion and hairstyle trends, not unlike heavy metal or punk.
Reports surfaced that emo teens were being murdered with bricks (a practice called mawt al-blokkah, death by blocking), being arrested and beaten in custody, or at the very least forced into attending reeducation camps.
Professor Mark Levine, in a detailed explanation of murders of gays in Iraq for Al Jazeera wrote that in Iraq's conservative society, homosexuality is one of the largest threats to the culture, which makes those who identify as emo, or even wear Western-style clothing easy targets for the militias.
As uncontrollable as the militias seem, as out-of-hand as they're painted for "hunting" emos and homosexuals, it seems the disorganized bands of fundamentalist Muslims are actually being allowed to act out by the Iraqi government.
"As several Iraqi commentators have pointed out, deploying these gangs for such activities is one way to keep them occupied, and ensuring their anger and discontent is not directed at more appropriate targets," wrote Levine.
To struggle for gay rights is to struggle for all rights
Despite this grave and dangerous situation, there is hope from within Iraq.
A group of parliamentarians has asked for an investigation into the killings, according to Human Rights Watch, and one of the most revered Shiite sheikhs in Iraq, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has gone against the grain of most other religious leaders and said to Al Arabiya in March that "targeting 'emo' youth is an act of 'terrorism' and a 'bad phenomenon for the peaceful co-existence project.’” Jodi Hilton
'Honor killing' targets Turkey's LGBTs
ISTANBUL – On the walls of buildings and along the back alleys of the trendy Tunel neighborhood here in an old part of the city, graffiti art of a ruggedly handsome man with a beard and gentle eyes first began appearing in 2008.
Three years later the black-and-white image, drawn by a renowned Japanese manga named Gengoroh Tagame and carrying the slogan “Ahmet Yildiz is My Family” has become ubiquitous.
An international community of friends, activists and civil rights supporters have posthumously adopted Ahmet Yildiz as a brother and as a cause, they say, after his father killed him for being gay.
“Ahmet’s so-called family killed him,” reads a blog established in the wake of his death. “Fortunately, he still has a real one: Us.”
Ahmet’s father, Yahya Yildiz, stands charged with murder after traveling 600 miles, allegedly hunting his son down and then shooting him five times on July 15, 2008. It is viewed as the country’s first reported anti-gay “honor killing.” And critics say that after three years, a pattern of indifference by the police in prosecuting the crime underscores the injustice.
“Many men and
women are murdered by their
families, but no one
asks about them.
The homophobic state is doing nothing to solve these murders.”
The long history of “honor killing” against women and girls is well documented in the Middle East and elsewhere.
But LGBT activists in Turkey and around the world say homosexuals are now increasingly targeted. They fear that a series of attacks targeting gay and transgendered Turks is a backlash against the LGBT community’s rising profile in a country where the official stance on homosexuality is that it is an “illness.”
Honor crimes against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals are hard to document in Turkey. Human rights advocates say they are often quietly covered up by families and that police often avoid investigating such crimes. The Yildiz murder has been closely watched by activists and now a new case of “honor killing” is drawing considerable attention.
On October 7, Fevzi Cetin, 27, turned himself in to police after shooting and killing his transgendered brother Ramazan Cetin, 24.
Unlike the family of Ahmet Yildiz, which thus far has not taken public responsibility for his death, Cetin was quite direct. “I killed my brother because he was engaged in transvestitism,” he said. “I cleansed my honor.”
Turkey’s human rights record has continually dogged the country’s attempts to gain admission to the European Union. In particular Human Rights Watch has criticized Turkey’s record on protecting its citizens against discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. But the Turkish government
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