A new report on the atrocities being perpetrated against gay Iraqis was issued this week by Human Rights Watch and while many LGBT American eyes were again focused on this vexing problem, I fear more of us are no longer tuning in to the war or the troubles faced by gays over there.
It's been more than six years since President George Bush launched his illegal war on Iraq, unleashing myriad deaths, incidents of torture, and civilian displacement upon all Iraqis, and we're all suffering fatigue over the war and its aftermath. Countless Americans pay no attention to the dwindling news coverage from Iraq, and when the topic of abuse and murders of gay Iraqis comes up, even fewer Americans give a damn.
The HRW report offers fresh and robust evidence that the militias act without punishment in targeting gays for death. An excerpt provides a chilling glimpse of the horrors:
"[The gay killings are] committed with impunity, admonitory in intent, with corpses dumped in garbage or hung as warnings on the street. The killers invade the privacy of homes, abducting sons or brothers, leaving their mutilated bodies in the neighborhood the next day. They interrogate and brutalize men to extract names of other people suspected of homosexual conduct.
"They specialize in grotesque and appalling tortures: several doctors told Human Rights Watch about men executed by injecting glue up their anuses. Their bodies have appeared by the dozens in hospitals and morgues. [�]
"A well-informed official at the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) told Human Rights Watch in April that the dead probably already numbered 'in the hundreds.'"
The question that needs addressing is simple. What is the responsibility we American gays bear in bringing some justice and relief to the gays in Baghdad and those fleeing the country to live as refugees?
Here in San Francisco, we have rallied in large numbers and raised funds. We also forced House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) to issue a weak condemnation of the deaths, and brought domestic and foreign media attention to the brutality. But that is not enough.
We need a sustained and coordinated campaign involving many key players to keep pressure on the State Department, the U.S. Congress, the Iraqi government, and non-governmental organizations in the Middle East, to create solutions that can bring immediate relief and protection to gay Iraqis.
I was hopeful recently that the Human Rights Campaign would take a leadership role in this problem, when it opened its Equality Center in July for a gay Iraqi refugee to stage a fundraiser to benefit other refugees. Unfortunately, HRC didn't vet the gay Iraqi and his presentation, which included a photo of an alleged gay Iraqi who had been beheaded by U.S. armed forces.
Charges of photo manipulation and a hoax were raised, and the U.S. Army opened an investigation into the matter, eventually finding no substantiation of the charges made by the gay Iraqi refugee during his presentation at HRC's headquarters in Washington.
Neither HRC nor the refugee has offered an apology over this incident, which I believe heavily and negatively influenced both gay and anti-war activists from engaging in gay Iraqi matters. Despite the controversy over the false beheading claim, I sincerely hope HRC maintains a commitment to assist the gay Iraqis.
Ideally, I'd like to see HRW collaborating with HRC, and other human rights groups, both at home and abroad, such as, but not limited to, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Amnesty International. and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.
A concerted effort by those groups, with assistance from average LGBT persons, campaigning for more engagement by the likes of the State Department and the British Foreign Office with the Ministry of Human Rights in Baghdad, would be one step to take.
Another would be to hear from human rights organizations about how best to improve the safety and security for the LGBT community across Iraq. It is simply not feasible to evacuate every gay person out of there, so what do the professional advocates propose the global gay community do to help out? Is there an accountable and transparent organization in Baghdad directly aiding the gays and should donations to it be encouraged?
We must also consider effective ways of helping the growing number of gay Iraqi refugees managing to flee the country. In Beirut, Lebanon, the gay and AIDS group Helem is helping to resettle some of the gay refugees, and has received funding from Gays Without Borders/SF and the Rainbow World Fund. But more funding is needed by Helem to continue to serve the refugees and we could use a long-term plan for assisting the refugees from the group.
Gay Iraqi refugees are desperately in need of asylum from the United States and British governments, two bodies that wreaked death and destruction on too many innocent citizens of Iraq to count. Campaigns should be organized to persuade both the U.S. and the UK authorities to increase the number of immigration and asylum slots for Iraqis overall, and for LGBT Iraqis who are suffering so much inhumane torture and murder.
As the U.S. and multi-national armed forces continue to withdraw and the Iraqi government assumes more responsibility for security, brutality against gays may increase. It is the duty of the American LGBT movement to help gay Iraqis now, and for years to come.
Longtime San Francisco activist Michael Petrelis operates the Petrelis Files blog at http://www.mpetrelis.blogspot.com.