Gays in syria

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Syria face serious legal challenges which are not experienced by non-LGBT residents. In Syria, LGBT individuals face significant challenges due to prevailing cultural norms, legal restrictions, and the ongoing conflict within the country. Men and women are often subjected to discrimination, social stigma, and harassment based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Over two days in February, Human Rights Watch interviewed 19 gay Syrian men who had taken refuge in Lebanon. (Lesbians are more difficult to find in Syria’s closeted culture.) Their stories. LGBT Rights in Syria: homosexuality, gay marriage, gay adoption, serving in the military, sexual orientation discrimination protection, changing legal gender, donating blood, age of consent, and more.

Persecuting LGBTQ+ individuals in Syria is normalized and justified in public discourse — whether before or after the regime’s fall — turning violence against them into a systematic practice backed by both official and popular hate speech. In , Damascus felt a bit more open to Amira. Amira was 24 when she came out to her family. It had taken her years to discover why she was not interested in having a boyfriend and why she always liked the female characters in the movies.

women's rights in syria

I felt like I was the only person like this. As for Madonna Adib, a year-old queer Damascene filmmaker now living in Beirut, she experienced a different kind of homophobia than Amira: internalized homophobia. It was not until Madonna moved to Beirut in that she discovered that she was queer. However, the years prior were essential to her acceptance of her identity, as she lost many things after her country, and her partner at the time, who was a male.

Though she acknowledges that Lebanon as a whole is not very LGBT friendly, in Beirut she was able to carve out a space for herself where she could freely explore and express her identity. It depends on where you walk, but still…it is the best worst option. The more Amira became vocal about the LGBT struggle on her Facebook profile and in the media, the more pressure her family and society put on her.

She was threatened and her house was attacked. Despite its safe spaces, Lebanon suffocates queer people. Gay couples cannot display affection in public like heterosexual couples can. Madonna related one instance when she was kissing her girlfriend on the beach and was accosted by public security officials Darak. After that, I have not done anything in public with a woman.

The article is rarely applied; instead LGBT individuals are prosecuted under other petty charges, such as disturbing public order. This makes it harder for LGBT Syrians to know where the red line is, George, a year old gay man from Barzah, a neighborhood of Damascus, told Syria Direct under a pseudonym due to concerns of social reprisals.

However, for many Syrians who do not have access to these more affluent and tolerant spaces, it is not the law that they fear, but rather how society will cast judgement upon them.

For Ammar a pseudonym , a year old gay man living in the central city of Homs, who first discovered his sexual orientation as a teenager, telling his parents about his sexual desires was an impossibility. He started using a dating app to find people like him. There, he struck up a virtual relationship with another teenage boy. Throughout, Ammar took pains to make sure no one found out about his hidden lifestyle, downloading the dating app in the morning and deleting it before his father returned home at night.

One day his phone was confiscated at school, and his teachers read aloud his messages with his partner. After the public humiliation, his mother was called to the school. When he got home, his father turned violent towards him. Now he is no longer allowed to leave the house and his phone has been confiscated, destroying any sense of privacy he once had. Syria Direct communicated with seven other LGBT Syrians living in Damascus, Latakia, Suwayda and Homs provinces, and with the exception of one, all had experienced some form of physical and verbal abuse, public humiliation or had received threats from their peers.

Three of the Syrians had attempted suicide, and one succeeded after being continually beaten and imprisoned by her family, according to her sister. One year old trans man born a woman but identifies as a male from Latakia who spoke under the condition of anonymity, realized he was transexual at the age of Two years later, when he was 18, his parents confronted him about changes in his dress and behavior.

He remains locked up in the house to this day, seven years later. Many of them connect virtually, through social media, like Instagram, where they can find like-minded individuals who understand their struggles. Layla is out and proudly displays her sexual orientation online and in real life.