I got a call today that I would rather not have received. M called and told me that his partner was dead. The Sadr militia caught him, super-glued his anus shut and then beat him to death. M is ready to leave but feels paralyzed. He has spent his entire life in Baghdad, has a government job, a nice apartment, a car, the love of his family, and a full life. He is in demand as a wedding singer. In the midst of war, people continue living and loving each other, and against the background of violence and fear, life goes on. Even in the dark times there is singing. There has been plenty of singing and laughter in M’s life; he is in all senses of the word, gay.
Unfortunately, M and men like him were born in the wrong country at the wrong time. The space for men like M to survive in Baghdad has disappeared. Homosexuality is against the law in Iraq under section 393 of the criminal code and is punished by seven years imprisonment. However, the judicial system is the least of a gay man’s worries. The police kill gay men, and so do the militias, and so do militia members that have infiltrated the police forces. Nor is violence against sexual minorities a Shia’ issue alone. In 2006 Islamist insurgent groups in the Sunni areas executed several teenage street boys for engaging in prostitution. Even in Kurdistan, where there is greater rule of law and less violence, gay men are not safe. In 2005, some gay men were videotaped and then blackmailed into carrying explosives; now the public and some of the police associate homosexuality with terrorism. The shame and stigma is so great that families throughout Iraq occasionally "cleanse the family honor" by killing gay relatives.
We’re not entirely sure of the reasons, but over the last few weeks the violence against gay men in Baghdad suddenly and alarmingly increased. This violence is more organized and more systematic. Straight-acting men can escape this killing campaign, but effeminate men who even appear to be gay are at exceptional risk. As reported in a recent NYT article http://www.nytimes.com/... at least 20 men are known to have been killed in the last few weeks. Six bodies were found dumped in Sadr City on March 26th, all of them tortured, with "pervert" written on their bodies. Unreported is the fact that police tortured and executed five gay men in a certain Baghdad police station the same week. "B" was walking on the street when three men jumped out of a taxi and smashed his head against a wall. "B" just got out of the hospital and wants to escape. "N" was arrested, severely beaten and gang-raped. His family paid a bribe and he is moving from house to house until he can escape. So is "S". Militia men came to his house and then his workplace hunting him. He is staying with his maternal uncle and switching cell phones daily as he tries to arrange his affairs before he either flees or is killed. "H" fled Baghdad and is staying in a hotel in a provincial city, hoping that he can get a passport before the police track him down. One other man has disappeared; he was en route to a relatives house to hide, but never arrived. The LGBT community believes that as many as one hundred gay men have been killed in the last month.
It’s not easy for a gay Iraqi to escape, seek shelter or get help right now. Middle class Iraqis may watch Oprah and Dr. Phil on MBC4, but homosexuality carries with it at least as great a stigma here as it ever has in the United States. The vast majority of Iraqis consider homosexuality to be a very grave moral sin. Gay men are viewed here with the same disdain and anger with which people in the United States view pedophiles. It’s useless to point out the difference between sexual activity between consenting adults and sexual exploitation of children, because in Iraq the individual is less important than the group and homosexuality is seen as a crime against the family. Sadly, most Iraqis don’t care if the police kill homosexuals. Some applaud it. Others look the other way. Gay Iraqis have no where to turn.
This diary, regrettably, describes real events. The stories briefly outlined above are not exaggerations. I’m leaving out many of the details – names, locations, etc – that would flesh out the initials into real human beings, because these men are at great risk and cannot be identified. They are real people, and they are terrified. I’m not writing to discuss US policy or US politics, although you are more than welcome to do so in the comments section. As some of you know from my past diaries and comments, I work in Iraq for a non-government organization that assists internally displaced persons. We are helping these men hide, and we are working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq (UNAMI) Human Rights Office to protect them as best we can. We will be flying those who have passports to Lebanon or Turkey, and we will try to help those without passports obtain them. However, we cannot do this publicly. Disclosing our participation in this effort would place our operations and our staff at risk. I would ask anyone reading this diary from a different political party or perspective to please respect that.
There is something you can do to help. Helem, a LGBT organization in Beirut, has agreed to shelter and protect these men in Lebanon until UNHCR resettles them in Europe, the United States or Canada. I am reluctant to write a DailyKos appeal for fundraising, but in this case I feel that I must. Helem is a poorly funded Lebanese organization run mostly by volunteers, and we are preparing to send them a number of Iraqi men, many of whom are victims of torture. If you have been tempted to do something concrete to help Iraqis, please consider sending Helem a donation: http://www.helem.net/...
I would like to raise about $20,000 to feed and shelter about a dozen men for three months, until UNHCR can process their refugee applications and move them to Europe or Canada. I can assure you that donations will be used specifically and exclusively to shelter Iraqi LGBT persons. The money will not go to salaries, administrative costs, or any other purpose. We will monitor the use of all funds.
"M" is ready to go. He has his passport. If his luck holds for a few more days and he keeps a cool head and gets through the checkpoints, he will board a plane and leave Iraq forever. The terror will recede, but his past life is over and his challenges are just beginning. Please do your part. Help him and others like him land safely in Lebanon on the first step of his new journey.
Let me close with a poem for M from Bertolt Brecht, another man who knew what it was to flee his country:
In the dark times
Will there also be singing?
Yes, there will also be singing
About the dark times.
"Motto to the 'Svendborg Poems' " [Motto der 'Svendborger Gedichte'] (1938), trans. John Willett in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 320
With gratitude,
Ivorybill