From Rozk:
All of the religious factions and militias and Kurdish nationalists and government police in Iraq have one thing that they can agree on, which is killing queers.
Most weeks, three or four people are hacked, stoned, burned or shot to death for being lesbian, gay, bi or trans. The highest Shia religious dignitary Sistani has again promulgated a fatwa calling for the execution of all non-repentant LGBT people – people talk of him as a liberal and in this degree he is – he allows people to repent on pain of death when most of his rivals would just kill. Contacted by the UN about this campaign of murder, the Iraqi government has refused to acknowledge that it is even a problem.
This is a direct consequence of the war – the Saddam regime, vile as it was, was secular in this respect, just as the Ba’athists in Syria still are. No-one does well in a totalitarian state, but LGBT folk were left alone, mostly.
More from the NYT,Peter Tatchell and the Iraqi LGBT blog.
Iraqi LGBT is a group that’s working to protect victims of homophobic persecution in-country, and help them find refuge in other countries, as well as seeking to raise awareness in the rest of the world. They have recently had to close most of their Iraqi safe-houses for lack of funds. Anyone who wants to help can find a donation link at the blog, or send a cheque via the UK gay human rights group OutRage! (address towards the end of this post).