Lebanon's LGBTQ+ community under threat as leaders ramp up campaign
euronews.comthe Culture Minister Mohammed Murtada asked the General Security Directorate to ban the hugely popular movie ‘Barbie’, claiming it “promotes homosexuality and transgenders”.The Directorate didn’t bow to that demand, however, and ‘Barbie’ will be shown in Lebanon, starting sometime this month.The Interior Ministry, too, has yet to act on a request from the Islamic Cultural Centre, calling for the public prosecutor’s office to shut down Helem, the first LGBTQ+ rights organisation in Lebanon and the Arab World, founded in 2004.Helem has ventured that the country’s political leaders are choosing to scapegoat the vulnerable community in order to distract from the myriad problems facing Lebanon.In June, the Interior Ministry restricted events connected to Pride month and it’s clear that the anti-LGBTQ+ campaign is being spearheaded by political officials as well as by religious figures from Lebanon’s many Christian and Muslim sects.Lebanon, unlike some of its neighbours, does not currently have a law that outright bans same-sex acts.Article 534 of the country’s penal code does, however, prohibit sexual relations that “contradict the laws of nature”.
That phrase has been used to penalise homosexuality on occasion, although a number of judges have long insisted that consensual same-sex relations do not fall under the law.The Article has proven highly contentious.
