IRAQ: Threatening fliers against homosexuals posted in Baghdad

Offering the latest evidence of an organized campaign of persecution against Iraq's gay community, threatening fliers have been posted around the impoverished Shiite enclave of Sadr City in eastern Baghdad targeting homosexuals, according to residents.

"If you don't cease your perverted acts, you will get your fair punishment," read the warnings, which were posted on walls on a variety of streets around the neighborhood.

On some were scrawled the names of two or three local men suspected of being gay, says one resident, who estimates he saw about 15 names in all. The fliers were signed by a previously unknown group calling itself the Platoons of Righteousness.

In addition, graffiti reading "we will get you, puppies" -- a derogatory Iraqi term for gays -- was sprayed on walls in red paint.

Residents said the fliers and graffiti were removed after a few hours, though it wasn't clear by whom.

Homosexuality is outlawed in many parts of the Middle East, and discrimination is widespread across the region. But in recent weeks Baghdad has witnessed an escalating campaign of violence against gays -- perhaps because they had taken advantage of the relative calm to more openly practice their lifestyles.

Police said the bodies of three slain men who were suspected of being gay were found earlier this month in Sadr City, and news reports say at least 25 homosexual men have been murdered in Baghdad over the last two months.

-- Liz Sly and Caesar Ahmed from Baghdad

Comments

[Harry Coverston]

What is striking in the comments above is that while the context of the comments changes - here from US conservatives to fundamentalist Muslim Iraq - the content of the comments remains the same - misanthropic, reductionist and demonizing. This same sad pattern plays out over and over in fear-driven societies. In Nazi Germany, the Final Solution sought to resolve "the Jewish problem" which was visualized by Goebels with sewer rats. In Rwanda the Tutsis were constructed on state radio as cockroaches in need of extermination. Read Sam Keen's Faces of the Enemy to understand the projection of shadow and construction of the other that is taking place here.

[Joy S.]

The way I read it, in this case the author is using "lifestyle" to refer to socially-open activity, as opposed to "orientation," which does not intrinsically imply visibility. Just as we all have orientations, we also all have lifestyles. It's not a dirty word. "Practice their orientation" wouldn't really make sense here. I also notice the author uses the plural--lifestyles, not lifestyle. This again suggests to me a more nuanced understanding of the multiple sorts of ways to live a visible life as a gay, lesbian, bi or transgender individual. I'd save my anger for the government, which has been accused of a) rounding up LGBT people b) putting LGBT people who are accused of minor crimes on death row c) not prosecuting "honor killings" (i.e. when families kill a member for being LGBT). This is where your tax money is (still!) going.

[Sly]

Homosexuality is sick! The thought of a man having sex with another man...come on tell me that's normal. Next we'll be saying it's ok to have sex with your pet. Anyone who tinks this is ok has deep mental problems!!!

[Jim W]

Regarding Mark's comments about the writers' using "lifestyle": You are so right Mark. Using this word is hugely insulting because it implies there is choice involved in what our sexual orientation is. There is no chosing; it is programmed into us. It is inescapable. I feel deep sorrow for gays who live in such repressive, ignorant societies.

[SteveLA]

What happened to the Liberal assertion that we the US have nothing to say about how Iraq runs their own country?

News Flash to the Gay folks, in many parts of the Middle East, homosexuality is treated by religious belief as a reason to be put to death. How do you propose to change that fact?

[Joanne]

You'd think they were right wing Christians.

[Michael Ballard]

What lifestyle? Outdoors, being active, that is a lifestyle. If being gay is a "lifestyle" does that mean that having blonde hair is "lifestyle" too? Sad. They speak of ignorance, yet are ignorant themselves.

[Mark]

What a shame that the writers of this story chose to call homosexuality a "lifestyle". I'm not even sure what people mean when they use that terminology. It's called sexual orientation. It's really not that difficult to use the correct words.