#ILoveGay

On April 1, Sulaimani security forces (Asayish) rounded up a group of men in Sarchinar, a neighborhood in the city where people of any sexual orientation can pick up sex workers.The night of the arrests, operation supervisor Pshtiwan Bahadin told loca

Hundreds of people live similar lives throughout the country. Often in arranged marriages, they have secret same-sex partners, but are always afraid to be found out.

LGBT activists from Arabic-speaking countries in the Middle East and North Africa are defying state-sponsored repression and social stigma, Human Rights Watch and the Arab Foundation for Freedoms and Equality (AFE) said in a video series issued today.

As Australians cast their vote via postal survey on whether to legalise same-sex marriage, LGBT+ communities in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and in the rest of Iraq, as well as in many other countries around the world fight for basic human rights and struggle for co-existence. Ayaz Shalal, Deputy Director of the Rasan Organisation, tells SBS Kurdish about the work of their organisation and the way in which they work to break social taboos, educate the community and help women and the LGBT+ community with their struggles.

Egypt should stop arresting and harassing people suspected of homosexuality using trumped-up “debauchery” and “inciting debauchery” charges, Human Rights Watch said today. Security forces rounded up at least eleven people in the days following a September 22, 2017 concert in Cairo at which young concertgoers waved rainbow flags, a symbol of solidarity with  lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) people, a defiant act in a country known to persecute gay men and transgender people.

Saudi judges have convicted people for "immorality", having sexual relations outside of marriage, and homosexual sex.

“It broke my heart that my parents were the ones I was most afraid of,” said Fuad al-Essa.

"In the end, love is the feeling that wins"

The LGBT community, particularly in the Arab world, continues to face many challenges.