Syria: A Gay Man In Aleppo?

Air strikes in Syria will not help LGBTI people persecuted by IS and may lead to revenge attacks against them.

That’s the message from LGBTI Syrians themselves after UK Prime Minister David Cameron cited the execution of gay men as one of the reasons Britain should bomb Islamic State targets.

Reports and graphic images have emerged throughout the year of gay Syrians being thrown from buildings by IS and stoned to death by mobs.

But the bombing raids could make things even worse, according to Armen from Aleppo, Syria’s largest city.

He told GSN today: ‘The British intervention will make the local LGBTs more vulnerable. It places them at risk because IS and the other fighters will take revenge on them.’

Ratteb, a gay Syrian now in exile in Beirut, described IS as ‘the cancer of society’ saying it ‘is against every religious group, including Christianity and Islam’.

But he felt the foreign intervention in Syria would not help LGBTIs.

‘Our problem isn’t only with IS but with all the Arab regimes and the legislation in the region that means LGBTIs have no role in society,’ he said.

‘If these big countries like the Britain really want to help our main concern is changing the law [that criminalizes homosexuality] to help us effectively become active parts of the society.’

Jawad, a Syrian LGBTI refugee now living in Helsinki, Finland, questioned whether gay rights were really a concern of the US, UK, France and others in the coalition.

He told us: ‘In any case, Britain isn’t getting involved in the war to protect gays but for its own benefit, just like every country interfering in the war in Iraq and Syria.’

The American-led coalition includes Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, that all criminalize homosexuality, alongside the western allies...

Gay Star News.

Surprised/pleased to see GSN running this, and not being running dogs of imperialism as per.

Maybe they've been shamed into it?

Correction: Neither gay nor a girl nor in Damascus.

However, please bear in mind that LGBT voices from the Middle East quoted in the Western media are notoriously unreliable.

Most infamously you may recall in 2011 the much vaunted blog, A Gay Girl In Damascus - who, after claiming she'd been kidnapped - was exposed as being written by a straight American man in Edinburgh.