Earlier this year, Saudi Arabian prosecutors made a serious push to make demonstrating homosexuality in public or on social media punishable by death.
To this day, those found guilty of sodomy run the risk of being sentenced to years of imprisonment, stiff fines, corporal punishment in the form of beatings, floggings, and lashings, and, in the most extreme cases, public execution.
Related: The Saudi Arabian Punishment for Acting Faggy Online? 1 Year In Jail + 1,000 Lashes
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A man was arrested in March simply for raising a rainbow flag outside his home. There have been roughly “50 cases of cross-dressers” and “35 cases of homosexuality” in Saudi Arabia in the last eight or nine months, according to The Daily Express and Saudi newspaper Okaz.
Related: Saudi Arabia’s Young Men Gather Late At Night to Race Cars … and Cruise?
In 2014, a Saudi Arabian man who tried to find dates on Twitter was sentenced to three years of detention and 450 lashes for “promoting the vice and practice of homosexuality.”
Related: Saudi Prince Accused Of Forcing Maids To Watch As He Was “Stroked” By Young Male Aide
That’s why notorious whistleblowing organization Wikileaks is coming under considerable fire for their most recent data dump, which exposes the personal details of thousands of Saudi people, including rape victims, people with HIV, men convicted of gay sex, and men detained for “sexual deviation.” Much of the information is highly sensitive, including details of cases where men were either tortured or sexually abused by their employers.
Related: U.S. Denies Asylum To Gay Saudi Diplomat Who Claims He’s Facing Execution
Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange had this to say about the dump:
The Saudi Cables lift the lid on an increasingly erratic and secretive dictatorship that has not only celebrated its 100th beheading this year, but which has also become a menace to its neighbors and itself.”
Related: Saudi Police Arrest Journalist For Wearing Makeup, Heading To “Homosexual Party”
“They published everything,” a Saudi man told The Associated Press, traumatized by the fact that Wikileaks decided to reveal deeply personal information about a paternity dispute. “My phone, address, name, details. If the family of my wife saw this … Publishing personal stuff like that could destroy people.”
Related: “No Homo”: These #DNCLeaks Are Utterly Absurd And Surprisingly Gay
Social justice warriors quickly took to social media to voice their outrage:
“In Saudi Arabia LGBT is a crime punishable by long prison plus lashing or even death. This is malicious @wikileaks.https://t.co/6AVMWMT5Xw
— Al Giordano (@AlGiordano) August 23, 2016
why is it only women and gay people that wikileaks seems to have sensitive information about https://t.co/X8BNX1VD09
— Jesstlé Toll House (@my2k) August 23, 2016
Next we will order @wikileaks to publish personal details of every gay person in Iran.
— Soviet Sergey (@SovietSergey) August 23, 2016
@wikileaks has published the personal information/data about gay ppl, HIV+ people and other things. They’re in Saudi Arabia. Death sentence
— Kalvin Chapman (@KalvinChapman) August 23, 2016
“WikiLeaks named teenage rape victims…the site published the name of a Saudi citizen arrested for being gay.” #ArrestAssange
— Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) August 23, 2016
Transiteer
I used to think Wikileaks was a White Knight – letting us know what the 1%ers were doing to us, Big Corporations etc etc.
But now, I’m convinced that Wikileaks is just another bitter political attack vessels going after liberals and gays.
He HAS a political agenda. Is he anti-gay as well? It certainly looks like it. This is a vile thing to do to people in repressed nations with no political agenda. So why then?
David Bolton
I wouldn’t lose a moment of sleep if someone put a bullet through Julian Assange’s head.
CWM85
I notice that there was no mention of Clintpn ties to saudi arabia. They have given her 20 million and she bas remained silent about their oppression of gays and women. Yet she is somehow a great ally. Smh…
Tripster56
And they’re our really good oil buddies. How come we claim we have to infiltrate other nations who have poor human right record, blah, blah,blah yet we deal on a regular basis with this most dictator theocratic country. Oh that’s right they got oil. We are a bunch of hypocrites plain and simple.
Drew Espinosa
@CWM85, Exactly! It’s quite pathetic how the gay community is willing to give her a pass on things while they’d crucify others for doing the same thing.
Brian
Didn’t Hillary Clinton’s “Clinton Foundation” accept Saudi cash? If so, it suggests that Hillary is not to be trusted.
As for the persecution of gays in Saudi Arabia, it’s more of a political/power thing. The Saudi regime is a dictatorial regime. It is enabled by Western governments, such as the USA and Great Britain.
Nevertheless, Saudi men are very liberated in their attitude to casual sexual behavior between men who are also attracted to women. It’s far more admitted than in the USA where men are railroaded into identifying as gay or straight along strict divisions.
NateOcean
Hey, Julian Assange, an egotistical turd with a platinum blonde dye job, is still a turd.
Just ask Ryan Lochte.
Paco
@Transiteer, He definitely has a political agenda. I don’t know if Assange is anti-gay or not, but it has been made pretty clear that he has no problem trampling over innocents (gays, poz people, and teen rape victims) to achieve his political agenda. He clearly wants Putin, err I mean Trump, to be the next POTUS.
Manchester
It always cracks me up when idiots start bringing Hillary into the conversation that clearly isn’t about her. STFU and start learning the title Madame President.
robho3
Julian is a media whore douche bag and Hilary is untrustworthy and Donald trump is a baffoon. so try me people who the hell are we supposed to vote for???
Stache
@Manchester: They’re desperate and pathetic right now. So the crooked hillary or she’s too crazy meme is out in full force.
Manchester
@Stache: So true Stache!
Xzamilio
He put the lives of innocent LGBT individuals in danger, but let’s not forget that A. Saudi Arabia is a US Ally so fat chance of our government ever holding their hands to the fire about their human rights violations and B. Saudi Arabia is a conservative Islamic country, and is run by Sharia Law. Assange should be condemned, but this is a clear cut example of how Islam in practice is dangerous, just as Christianity in Uganda as it is practiced is dangerous. I like nobody’s highlighting the issue with Saudi Arabia… because the fact that they even live in a country with such regressive practices is the problem.
At least we Americans of all faith lazily worship or don’t worship, right?
Brian
Middle-Eastern men are far more open-minded to the idea of male homosexuality than are American men or British men. Even though the Middle Eastern men don’t subscribe to gay identity politics, they are open to male-male erotic interactions. Virtually 100% of men in Saudi Arabia have had same-sex experiences.
In the USA or Britain, there are strictly enforced rules when it comes to male sexuality. These rules force men to identity as straight or gay. Therefore, you have a society where the vast majority (96%) of men identify as straight and a tiny minority (4%) identify as gay. It makes male homosexuality seem very rare.
Which society is more open-minded to male-male erotic interactions? I think it’s the Middle Eastern one.
film2212
You mean the 20 million that she used to buy medication for Aids victims and in third world countries
Kangol
@CWM85: Or Trump ties. He whores for business from Saudi Arabia too. But no mention. I wonder why?
Also, why is Queerty using a known right-wing term like “social justice warriors”? Do you mean HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATES, who are trying to protect the queer people of Saudi Arabia, who are in serious danger because their names and info are being revealed by creepy accused-rapist Julian Assange?
Chris
I thought he was a bit out there; but now, he’s crossed a line into being evil. There is no reason for outing otherwise-innocent people for whom being outed could result in their imprisonment and/or deaths.
Aromaeus
Gotta love the people who take any chance to bash on Islam as if Christianity hasn’t killed millions of people. Religion is a stain on any society stop trying to make one out to be worse than any of the others.
Xzamilio
Gotta love the people that have to go back to the past to justify the barbarism in fundamentalist Islamic sects around the world. Religion is a stain, but not all of those stains are as prominent or as damaging as others, and the continued dishonesty in always reverting back the old stain of Christian violence compared to fresh and growing stain of Islamic violence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htafiCywieU
Xzamilio
And while we’re at it, let’s stop pretending one form of cancer is worse than the other. Let’s stop pretending that some cancers had a high mortality rate before science and medicine evolved while other still remain aggressive and kill at a faster rate than other cancers. No, fuck that. All cancer is equal. Buddhist cancer is just as bad as Islamic cancer….
Kangol
@Xzamilio: Christian violence against LGBTQs is not just in the “past.” Ask the LGBTQ people in Uganda, Jamaica, Russia, etc., how great Christianity is in defending their human rights. The Russian Orthodox Church, for example, strongly supports violence against gay people. Oh yep, I know, the evangelical nutcases continue to do everything they can to make gay people’s lives hellish, there and here. But hey, it’s invisible to you, so that’s all that matters.
Xzamilio
@Kangol: Oh, no… I put things into perspective, but that means I must ignore one over the other. It’s funny how we have NO problem calling out Christianity for its atrocities — as we should — with no buffer, no litmus test, no other religion to compare it to, but the minute Islam gets the same treatment, it’s “But Christians are doing it, too”… “But, the bible”… “Not ALL Muslims”. Where is the nuance for Christianity? And I’m saying this as an atheist. I don’t need to prove myself to your dumb ass because my disdain for Christianity is littered all over Queerty. But, Islam currently has a unique problem with radicalism that my own liberals — the regressive left — refuses to acknowledge out of fear of racism, which is fucking insulting to my black ass because religion ain’t a race.
You see how you can pinpoint homophobia in Uganda, Russia, and Jamaica on Christianity? And don’t forget Ethiopia… life for LGBT people there is terrible too… in a lot of parts of Africa, actually. So play stupid with someone who hasn’t heard your oddly dogmatic arguments about how Islam shouldn’t be viewed any differently than Christianity. Continue doing a disservice to the LGBT, secular, female, and reformist Muslim population in these oppressive countries.
Xzamilio
@Kangol: And by the way, you dishonest asshole, I didn’t say Christian violence is in the past. I said I love how you have back to the past to justify current violence in Islam. “ISIS is throwing gays off of rooftops”…. “But The Crusades.” “Boko Haram kidnaps dozens of young girls from their schools” …”But The Salem Witch Trials”. “Islamic extremism in Paris… in Nice… In Germany. Explosions killing dozens and hundreds in the Middle East.” “Christian abortion bombers… 9 people are dead.”
Let’s talk about those Uganda, Jamaica, and Russia… how often did you hear words minced about their archaic and draconian practices? You can literally scour the internet and see other Christians freely calling them out without any worry of some lunatic finding them and killing them for criticizing Christianity, so suck my fucking dick, you regressive cuck. Goddamn gay people defending Islam but have no problem throwing Christianity under the bus… throw em both!! They both suck, but they don’t suck equally. Sorry, that’s the truth.
dennisrutten52
Yeah!
dennisrutten52
Cool!
Hussain-TheCanadian
Well, I’m glad ms. Xzamilio got her two cents in, that should have her anti-religion tirade in check for the rest of the week.
Now for those who actually want to make a stink about what those barbarians in Saudi Arabia are doing to our brothers and sisters, it’s an excellent idea to start petitioning your congressmen about reviewing your government’s relationship with the Saudis.
Stop selling them weapons, stop giving them political cover at the UN, and for God’s sake open an inquiry into Saudi government’s role on 911, the 28 pages have been released and we now know their intelligence services has a hand in it. There is no reason to be passive or quite, we have to expose every government that is barbaric towards our community.
P.s.
F*ck you Julian Assange!!
dustashed
@Xzamilio:
Thanks xzamilio for that very impassioned tirade lol
Now all i need to do is just copy paste what you said instead of formulating my own response. You basically stated what i was thinking and put it together more eloquently that i ever could have. 🙂
Islam nor any other religion shouldn’t get a free pass while people bash on christianity with impunity. All religion should be fair game if their teachings seek to oppress a group of individuals.
paqbatlh
@Brian: Please provide either studies or surveys which substantiate your claim that, “Virtually 100% of men in Saudi Arabia have had same-sex experiences.” How do you come to this conclusion, which seems wildly at odds with reality. In a nation in which same-sex sexual encounters are potentially punishable by death, you seem to have the clairvoyance to know that this is all a facade and that all of these men secretly have sexual relationships. It seems you have more of an axe to grind with your perceived view of sexuality in the West; again please elaborate on your claim that sexual roles in the United States and United Kingdom are “strictly enforced”.
gayhope1990
@paqbatlh:It’s useless.Brian is a jerk.He loves spending his time to denigrate women,self accepting gay or supporting this motherfucker of Trump.
Heywood Jablowme
@Xzamilio: Thanks for all that. And you KNOW what your critics will say next:
“You’re demonizing all Muslims!”
That’s all they’ve got and it’s so predictable.
Mo Bro
Just like the Jenner fiasco, Assange is a typical anti-establishment tool worshiped by liberals . . . until he dares—DARES!—to unveil their own hypocrisy, this time in dealing with countries that happily execute gays.
Xzamilio
@Heywood Jablowme: And that is what is so mind boggling to me… the same people criticizing me for what I say about Islam had no problem with me saying it about Christianity. And the odd thing is, I don’t have to say anything about Judaism, the most violent of the abrahamic doctrines, because by and large it has reformed. Each attack, and the “Not all Muslims” chants get louder and louder, but fewer and fewer are saying it, because with each one, one more liberal wakes the fuck up and realizes there’s a problem that needs to be addressed. Not that Muslims are bad, but that Islam needs to be looked at… and having to continue to tear that straw man down is exhausting. But the usual apologists on this board don’t bother me in the slightest anymore, especially the most regressive one of them all who I refuse to even directly acknowledge anymore.
Xzamilio
Wait a minute. In all of my self-praising spiel, I went back to read my grammar-riddled posts and saw that I DID in fact mention Uganda’s Christian oppression of their LGBT population in my very first post, so TELL me again, Kangol, about how it’s invisible to me. Maybe it’s invisible to you because you didn’t bother reading all of it. I get it, I talk too much, but if you don’t want to look like you selectively pluck out lines, get the WHOLE experience and read everything…. ass.
mdbuck67
…And it begins. The Clintons are ruthless with people who know where the truth lies and/or where the bodies are buried.
Brian
@paqbatlh: Male sexuality in the West is strictly enforced by women. That’s because the West has given women too much power to wield their influence over men.
Furthermore, the West has allowed women to insert themselves into all-male domains. This has reduced the likelihood of casual homosexuality between men. In nations of the Middle East, where women’s influence is curtailed, casual homosexuality between men is far more commonly admitted to than it is in the UK, Australia and the USA. There is less of a stigma to it in the Middle East.
In the West, the idea that a man can flick the switch from one sex to another has been heavily stigmatized by the feminist Left as well as by the gay Left. Both feminists and gay-identifying men have colluded to stigmatize thus. Both are guilty of a peculiar kind of homophobia that seeks to stigmatize male bisexuality but glamorize female bisexuality.
In the West, gay-identifying men have taken the side of the fake-bisexual female prostitute instead of the genuine bisexual male. Highly disturbing to say the least, and a sign of dysfunction in the cultural evolution of gay male identity politics.
Tobi
@Brian: “Virtually 100% of men in Saudi Arabia have had same-sex experiences.” No Brian, that’s not a fact, just one of those voices in your head again. *sigh*
Heywood Jablowme
@Tobi: Yes – Brian shouldn’t rely so much on his personal, anecdotal experiences. He’s probably only had same-sex experiences with maybe 80% of the men in Saudi Arabia! But he really could let us know how to get a visa for there because those are hard to get.
ErikO
@CWM85: Very true. People forget this, and it was not that long ago that she was not for LGBT rights at all or same sex marriage but now she just pretends to be an ally when in reality she’s not.
IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou
He and his organization are terrorists and need to be put down like we do with the rest of them.
stranger2myself
How dare you speak badly about Saudi Arabia?! That’s your biggest ally! Clinton loves them and their money, Trump too! CIA loves to sell them weapons, NSA to help to spy on Iran. Shame on you Americans!
Kangol
@Xzamilio: I’m not a “dishonest asshole,” I called your BS out. Radical Islam is horrendous. But so is Christian fanaticism. Both are oppressive. Any religious fanaticism is oppressive. You need help, though. “Regressive cuck,” “asshole”: girl, get some f*cking help, PRONTO!
Xzamilio
@Kangol: No you get some help on making an argument, and take your false equivalence somewhere else. IF you think Christian fanatics are on the same level as Radical Islamists, you’re an idiot or you haven’t been keeping up with the news for the past 15 years. Hell, testicular cancer and pancreatic cancer are both cancers. Are they both on the same level? Or is one more aggressive than the other? Because I’ll tell you what… the fundies in this countries are no friend of mine, but I’ll take them anyday over the crazies in the Middle East. And if you say it’s no different, I’ll gladly pay for you ticket to go live over there.
Hussain-TheCanadian
@Kangol: Darling just leave her be, she can’t help it but turn this into an Atheist, ideological crusade against religion – He knows Saudi Salafi Wahabism is the problem, he knows the American political establishment along with the Pentagon are the ones who unleashed this monstrosity on the planet in the 80s, but who cares about political facts.
Words like “cuck”, “regressives” are silly terms, used by emotional folks, who are simply unable to put aside their waning personal grudges and obsession with “Religion”, rather than on focusing on something we can all agree on and do, and that is fight these monsters politically and militarily.
inbama
The only reason Christianity is currently not as vile as Islam is we don’t allow it.
Both sides of this argument are crediting religion when it is the Enlightenment, the freedom of and from religion, and the Separation of Church and State that keeps us from beheading gays, atheists, feminists, heretics – you name it – in the town square.
As far as Assange and Wikileaks, if you want to fall for the “useful idiot” hackers helping Vladmir Putin bring down NATO and the European Union and elect Donald Trump, go for it.
Xzamilio
@inbama: I agree with you, except I wouldn’t say it “keeps” us from beheading gays, atheists, feminists, heretics — or you name it — I think it was all of those things that allowed for our collective morality to evolve beyond the barbarism of the religious doctrine. It’s why we can look at verses in the OT that call for the death of gays, women who are not virgins on their wedding night or have been raped and did not call out for help loud enough, why we don’t agree with slavery as outlined in Exodus Chapter 21. So I definitely credit those things for shifting human morality away from dogmatic absolutes and understanding the human condition.
Now I definitely agree with you that our constitution and secular laws keep most of the nutjobs at bay, but then again, if they really feel they have holy moral righteousness on their side, who’s to stop them from killing everyone the bible outlines as up for grab?
inbama
@CWM85:
Who’s to stop it?
We are, of course!
DCguy
@CWM85:
Oh look the anti-lgbt Log Cabin folks are attacking Clinton by claiming she has ties to Saudi Arabia. Just curious, what are your comments on the several Saudi owned hotels that Trump licenses in the middle east?