From Morocco to Egypt, from Palestine to Iraq. We are your friends, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, cousins..... We are your teachers, journalists, doctors, community leaders, ministers..... We breathe, feel, cry, laugh, pray..... We are just as human as you are. We aim to be recognized, live with dignity and respect, raise awareness and change false misconceptions concerning
people who happen to be gay, le***an, bisexual or transgender. We believe that paving the path for tolerance, understanding and mutual respect of Arabs who happen to be LGBT begins with education. Tolerance is not the same as acceptance. Tolerance does not mean in agreement with or in support of. We are all entitled to our own opinion. You may strongly disagree with and / or believe some people are inherently wrong and still tolerate them. Still understand and respect them. We are all different. If we were meant to be the same, to believe the same thing, to think the same way, to act the same way then we would have been created as such. The countries that make up the Arab world according to the "League of Arab States" are: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestinian Territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Homosexuality continues to be illegal and punishable by the DEATH penalty in the following Arab countries: MAURITANIA, SAUDI ARABIA, SUDAN, YEMEN and southern parts of SOMALIA. Homosexuality is illegal in the following countries (punishable by imprisonment, lashes, hard labor): Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Syria, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. There is no law explicitly outlawing homosexuality in Comoros, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and northern parts of Somalia. However, that is not to mean that LGBT folks are accepted, tolerated or even safe from imprisonment in these countries. Egyptian officials have used another law that addresses public decency and morality in order to arrest, imprison, torture and deny proper legal representation for men who are suspected to be or are actually gay and/or bisexual. Cases of beatings / lashings and/or "honor killings" of men suspected to be or who are actually gay / bisexual have been reported in Iraq and Somalia. Our goal - what we hope can be achieved - is to decriminalize homosexuality in the entire Arab World. It will take time but we strongly believe it can be done.
