Six gay men shot to death in Iraq by tribe members

[The Straight Story]

Six gay men shot to death in Iraq by tribe members

By Mohammed Tawfeeq CNN

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Six gay men were shot dead by members of their tribe in two separate incidents in the past 10 days, an official with Iraq's Interior ministry said.

In the most recent attack, two men were killed Thursday in Sadr City area of Baghdad after they were disowned by relatives, the official said.
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The shootings came after a tribal meeting was held and the members decided to go after the victims.

On March 26, four additional men were fatally shot in the same city, the official said, adding that the victims had also been disowned by their relatives.

The official declined to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

Witnesses told CNN that a Sadr City cafe, which was a popular gathering spot for gays, was also set on fire.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/04/05/gay.deaths.iraq/index.html?eref=ib_topstories

[msongs]

1. don't ask don' tell Iraqi style - the US policy taken to the extreme limit nt

[patrice]

2. Shall we start an index of all of the countries in which this sort of thing happens?

1, 2, 3, or more at a time doesn't matter; hate crimes are hate crimes and one who opposes hate crimes opposes ANY hate crime anywhere in the World.

I've heard enough widespread hate of Muslims around me to legitimately speculate that FOR SOME the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq was a hate crime. I wonder if you agree with that assessment.

[patrice]

3. The battle for the Gay Vote and its role in the MIC continues. nt

[foo_bar]

4. not a good time and place to be a minority of any kind

I recall Jews were the first to go, per usual, in spite of a Tsarist Russia type relationship with the monarch, then people were marked for being ethnoculturally Shi'ite in Sunni strongholds and especially vice versa, and when they ran out of religious minorities to persecute they sent death squads to the homes of political "moderates" (meaning liberals in regions dominated by clerics), dissidents, intellectuals and the like, and tortured them to death a la Rwanda or Cambodia, so now they're following the usual template for humans gone apeshit and I imagine it's a shitty place to be a woman as well. But yeah, gay people are pretty much marked for death in a lawless environment, like Wyoming.

[Raymond Budelman]

5. Iraq and Tolerance

Such events are horrific and reemphasize that all nations have struggles with intolerance. This shows that "western" viewpoints cannot be instilled by force.

[jesus_of_suburbia]

6. I'm so sorry for these poor men. Being disowned for what you are is bad enough

Then to be murdered. Wow.