This is just horrifying.
The Jerusalem Post is reporting that a 19-year-old gay Israeli from the Arab village of Tamra has been threatened, abducted, and tortured by his own family in what appears to be some sort of bizarre attempt to maintain the family’s honor. The teen, Angel, who has lived in Tel Aviv since a year and a half ago, performs as a drag queen and apparently posted some pictures on Facebook showing him in drag. This seems to be what sent some relatives over the edge – enough to result in a disgusting mission to turn Angel straight and “set him back on the right path.” According to Angel’s interview with Ynet, some family members – even his own mother – began to threaten him after seeing the drag pictures on Facebook:
I started working as a drag-queen, and after my photos appeared on the internet, I started receiving threats…At first they told me “take the pictures off the internet, or we'll kill you.” I was surprised, but moved on as usual. I had a good relationship with my family, so I ignored it.
Not long after the threats began, some relatives arrived at Angel’s Tel Aviv apartment and told him that his mother was sick in an attempt to lure him out of the apartment. When he refused to leave, they forced him into the car, drove him to his parents’ house in Tamra, beat him, tied him up, and locked him in a room by himself. Angel was able to contact a friend, and his friend called the police, but the police mistakenly went to his uncle’s house. The uncle then warned the family, and Angel was released.
After that incident, Angel was again attacked at a family wedding. According to the Jerusalem Post:
He was attacked again at a family wedding, during which he ran into the woods and did not come out until police came. Three weeks before the wedding, his mother called and warned him to remove the pictures in which the victim is in drag, saying "the family will come get you, and that'll be the end of you."
Then, on August 23, some family members arrived again at his apartment to abduct him. This time, he was with a friend, and they beat both Angel and his friend. They then sprayed Angel’s face with pepper spray, tied his hands with belts, used tape to blindfold him, and threatened to stab him. Fortunately, his friend called the police, who were waiting in Tamra when he and his abductors arrived.
The family, including one minor, was indicted on charges including contact in order to commit a crime, kidnapping with intent to imprison, kidnapping with intent to threaten, imprisonment, and threats and attacks.
It blows my mind that this can happen in the world. Angel’s situation is pretty extreme, but the anti-LGBT feelings that drove this kidnapping are quite common – from families that cut off contact with LGBT people after they come out to parents who throw LGBT youth out into the streets. I can’t help but think about how overwhelmingly blessed I am to have had a good coming-out experience. A loving family is something that I and so many others take for granted that so many LGBT people around the world and even in the United States don’t have. As Angel puts it: “They don’t understand the situation – it is unacceptable to them. They want me to get married; but I don’t care about these things. I just want to live my life the way I live it today.”
This shouldn’t happen to anybody. But it does, and it will happen again and again and again. Mainstream media outlets may not be picking up on it, but stories like Angel’s need to see the light of day.