Murder, Torture, Sexual Orientation and Gender in Iraq

What's it like for LGBT people in Iraq?  According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), the current condition facing Iraq's LGBT population can be best summed up by the title of their new report: "They Want Us Exterminated."

The report is out today, drawing light on a story that for years has been a tragic side note to the U.S. War in Iraq.  After the topple of Saddam Hussein's regime, violence toward LGBT people skyrocketed, with members of the LGBT community (or those perceived to be LGBT) being tortured, assaulted, arrested, detained, killed, and shot in the face and left to die.

The situation is so bad that U.S. Congressman Rep. Jared Polis (himself openly gay), had to a pen a letter to the Obama administration urging them to look into widespread violence committed toward Iraqi LGBT people.  An underground railroad, so to speak, has formed led by the British group Iraqi LGBT, which seeks to help LGBT people in the country flee from safe house to safe house, until they land in a country less brutal toward its LGBT population.

HRW continues that bleak picture with testimony from survivors that says LGBT people are being massacred in the country.  According to HRW, "While the country remains a dangerous place for many if not most of its citizens, death squads started specifically singling out men whom they considered not "manly" enough, or whom they suspected of homosexual conduct. The most trivial details of appearance-the length of a man's hair, the fit of his clothes-could determine whether he lived or died."

Disgusting.  And it doesn't stop there.

"The killers invade the privacy of homes, abducting sons or brothers, leaving their mutilated bodies in the neighborhood the next day. They interrogate and brutalize men to extract names of other people suspected of homosexual conduct. They specialize in grotesque and appalling tortures: several doctors told Human Rights Watch about men executed by injecting glue up their anuses. Their bodies have appeared by the dozens in hospitals and morgues," the report says.

Even more frightening is that no one knows how many men have been killed, since most of the murders happen with impunity and a massive failure of authorities to investigate.  Researchers told HRW that it's likely hundreds of men who have been killed.

Hundreds of people, slaughtered because of their sexuality.  In a country that receives a whole lot of money from the United States.  Feel like sounding off on that?  Head on over and sign this action, urging the Obama administration and Congress to accelerate efforts to investigate this type of disturbing behavior.

You can read the full report here.  And for more information on the concerted efforts of the international community to get LGBT people out of Iraq, check out Iraqi LGBT.