I searched and haven't found this posted yet.
The Washington Blade is reporting today on a story coming out of a LGBT event in Lebanon in which a speaker has photos of many gays being tortured and beheaded by US soldiers. Evidently "Fuck Off Fags" signs are prevalent at US bases. The so-far unsubstantiated report is by an informant known as "Hussam" who works to resettle Iraqi gays in Lebanon. His credibility seems pretty high:
D’Arcy Kemnitz, executive director of the National LGBT Bar Association, attended the event and said she didn’t know about Hussam’s photos before he showed them. She also said that she didn’t hear Hussam’s allegation that the U.S. military was involved in atrocities and has no copies of the photos he showed.
Still, she vouched for Hussam’s credibility.
“Based upon everything that I know, having worked with him in this kind of volunteer capacity, his credibility is beyond reproach,” she said. “He’s worked with international human rights groups since the time I’ve known him and before that.”
The story goes on to say that killings of gays by both Sunni and Shite militias has been widespread and that gays are in much more danger of death now than under Saddam Hussein.
“I was involved with the LGBT community in Iraq before and after the war,” he said, in referring to the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of the regime of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.He said gays were far better off under Saddam’s regime, even though, like all other groups, they had to obey the rules and restrictions of his dictatorial, one-party government.
“We had men’s clubs and men’s parties, which were gay events,” he said. “The government gave us a blind eye. They knew we existed.” As a secular government that repressed Islamic forces opposed to his rule, Saddam cracked down on violence against various groups, including gays, Hussam said. Saddam left most of the various religious and ethnic factions, including gays, alone in the country “as long as you stayed out of his way politically,” Hussam said
Of course most reactions are that this can't possibly be true because it's not politically correct. I'd be the last to want to believe it either. But service members I've worked with over the past couple years have confirmed an extreme right-wing and homophobic trend increasing rapidly in the forces, especially in Iraq. Even if US forces are enjoying and facilitating these beheadings it's a horrible thing we need to investigate independently by GLBT groups not as an official cover-up "investigation" (like the children sodomized while soldiers watched).
There are just too many antedotes of violent anti-gay incidents by US forces coming out of Iraq.
Full Story:
http://www.washblade.com/...
Recs appreciated so this gets out.