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Gay Syrian refugees see intolerance rise in once-liberal Lebanon: ‘I will slaughter you’
- Lebanon was the first Arab country to hold a gay Pride week and was a safe haven for the LGBTQ community in the Middle East, but this is changing
- Syrian LGBTQ people face greater discrimination in Lebanon, which has the highest population of refugees per capita in the world
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When Mahmoud’s father, a well-known sheikh in Aleppo city in Syria, found out his youngest son was gay, he was furious.
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“He pointed a rifle at my face, finger on the trigger, and fired into the air,” Mahmoud, 23, said, recalling the shame he felt five years ago when his father found him wearing make-up, an event that led to him revealing his sexuality.
“Then he beat me nearly to death with an iron bar,” Mahmoud said.
Mainly Muslim Syria is deeply conservative and people tend to disapprove of any open expression of sexuality or gender identity that falls outside the confines of being male or female and heterosexual.
The Penal Code criminalises “any sexual intercourse against the order of nature” with up to three years in jail. An Interior Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said about 200 Syrians are currently in prison convicted of gay sex.
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