GLOUCESTER, August 9, 2006  –  Three gay Iraqis are set to join the Gloucestershire Rainbow Day march through Gloucester city centre on Saturday (August 12) days after More4 Television News and the Observer reported on gays were the “new target” for death squads in Iraq.

Ali Hili, who co-ordinates Iraqi LGBT – a gay help and information group in Baghdad and London – will be joined by two other Iraqis who have fled their home country as hardline insurgent groups started targeting gay men, many of whom have been murdered on account of their sexuality.

Expected to attend are Ibaa, a former employee at the British Embassy in Baghdad, and Dr. Haider (last names are withheld to protect their families in Iraq) who fled from Iraq two years ago who was viciously beaten and kicked because he was gay.

While Dr. Haider was able to flee, his partner Ali was murdered.  “They didn’t even send the body to the family to have a grave or a flower garden – they said he didn’t deserve it because he was an animal,” Dr. Haider told the Observer.

Mr. Hili will be giving a talk on the desperate plight of gays in post-Sadam Iraq at the Coach and Horses in the afternoon, following the “gay pride” march.  He will be replacing Peter Tatchell who’s keynote speech to the International HIV-AIDS conference in Toronto has been moved forward, meaning he will not be able attend as he is flying to Canada that afternoon.

“I am very disappointed that I will not be at the first gay pride in Gloucestershire,” he said.  “But I hope to come to Gloucester later in the year.”

Gloucestershire Rainbow Day is being backed by the Gloucestershire County Council, the Gloucester City Council and the police.

“Gloucestershire County Council fully supports fairness and diversity for all its staff and residents of the county,” said county councillor Alan Pearce.  “We are proud to have recently acquired Stonewall accreditation and will be flying the Rainbow flag on 12th August to show the Council’s support for ongoing work to increase understanding and acknowledgement of the gay lesbian bisexual and transgender communities in Gloucestershire.

Rainbow Day chair, Chris Marsh said that the event had received fantastic support from all sectors from the local community.

“We are lucky in this country to have laws giving equality to gay men and women,” he said.  “But while there is more to do – including winning the hearts and minds of everyone, we should not forget those in countries who are forced to live deep in the closet.

“It is a privilege to welcome our friends from Iraq and, while we are disappointed that Peter Tatchell is unable to be with us, I am sure that Ali Hili will open more that a few eyes as to the current plight of gay Iraqis.”

Persecution of Iraq's Gay Community.  Video report (Windows Media Player) by Jennifer Copestake shown on More4 News on August 8, 2006)

Gays Flee Iraq As Shia Death Squads Find a New Target.  By Jennifer Copestake.  Hardline Islamic insurgent groups in Iraq are targeting a new type of victim with the full protection of Iraqi law, The Observer can reveal. The country is seeing a sudden escalation of brutal attacks on what are being called the 'immorals' - homosexual men and children as young as 11 who have been forced into same-sex prostitution. 

Sistani Removes ‘Death to Gays’ Fatwa from Website.  Iraqi gays are claiming success following the decision of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to remove from his website a fatwa calling for the killing of homosexuals in the “worst, most severe way possible”.   (May 15, 2006)

Iraqi Police Execute “Gay” Child in Baghdad.  Gay human rights group Outrage! has today accused Iraqi police of executing a 14 year old boy in the al-Dura district of Baghdad in early April. (May 4, 2006)

Ahmed’s Story – A Cruel, Barbaric Death.  By Ali Hili.  Ahmed Khalil was a likeable, playful 14 year old boy, born in the southern Iraqi town of al-Ammara.  The eldest child, he came from an uneducated family who lived in great poverty.  (May 4, 2006)

IGLHRC Calls On Bush Administration to Condemn Violence Against Iraqi Gays. The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) is calling on the Bush administration to take all appropriate measures to publicly condemn the escalation of violence against gay men and lesbians in Iraq and take all possible measures to ensure their protection.  (April 20, 2006)

Male Homosexuality Still a Taboo in Iraq.  Living in the shadow of religious pressure and social discrimination, medical student Ahmed Fatah says there’s no way he could ever tell anyone about his sexuality.  (February 6, 2006)

Commentary:  While We Sit and Bitch, Gay Human Rights Abuses Continue.  We sit in our comfortable homes and ponder whether we should go partying in a gay nightclub, or just go for a quiet drink in our neighbourhood gay pub or bar.  Once a year we can frolic in the streets during our local “Pride” in a way that was unthinkable twenty years ago. (August 17, 2005)

Iraqi Gays Face Abuse and Murder.  As Iraq wrestles with its planned constitution, the country’s gays and lesbians face blackmail, rape and murder, a LGBT human rights group charged today. (August 16, 2005)

Focus on Teens Trapped In Commercial Gay Sex Trade in Iraq.  Hassan Feiraz, a 16-year-old boy, has started a desperate new life since being forced into the sex trade in Baghdad, joining a growing number of adolescents soliciting in Iraq under the threat of street gangs or the force of poverty.  “Every day I cry at night,” Feiraz said.  “I’m a homosexual and was forced to work as a prostitute because one of the people I had sex with took pictures of me in bed and said that, if I didn't work for him, he was going to send the pictures to my family.” (August 8, 2005)

Shock and Awe has Become Terrorize and Disgust.  Perspective by Faisal Alam.  To Iraqis, Arabs, and Muslims around the world, the few photographs that we have seen reveal the dark side of the American psyche. (May 14, 2004)

Al-Fatiha Condemns Sexual Humiliation of Iraqi Detainees.  Al-Fatiha Foundation, a US-based organization dedicated to Muslims who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, questioning (LGBTIQ), has condemned the sexual humiliation and abuse of Iraqi detainees by the US occupied forces in Iraq.  (May 10, 2004)