Tag: Egypt

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News Round-Up: October 4, 2017

Pride flag flies in the breeze

Some news items you might have missed: • A group of men arrested in Egypt for waving a rainbow Pride flag are being subjected to hideous forced anal exams to prove whether they’ve had sex with men. Gay sex isn’t illegal per se in Egypt, but the country is currently cracking down on so-called “moral decency.” • Handsome Downton Abbey star Rob James-Collier says playing the troubled, gay butler “Thomas Barrow” on the hit series has left him type-cast and shut out of opportunities his fellow DA stars have had. • Ivanka and brother Donald Trump Jr. were close to being charged with fraud in NYC back in 2012 until the Manhattan District Attorney received a campaign donation of $25,000 from Trump Sr.’s personal lawyer. The case was summarily dropped. #ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmmm • Sad to read one of my favorite Major League Baseball teams, the New York Yankees, are one of four MLB teams to have never hosted an LGBT pride night for fans. The New York Times writes that the Yankees have “shied away from promotions with an ethnic or cultural flavor.” • Check out your new judges for the American Idol reboot for the first time on Good Morning America this week: Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan

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News Round-Up: September 26, 2017

(via Instagram)

Some news items you might have missed:

• I’m calling for #TouchTuesdays. Do you ever think about how much you touch (or don’t touch) your spouse/significant other/family/friends? If not, give that a ponder. Human contact literally connects us. I was holding hot hubby Michael’s hand through the streets of NYC this week and remembered how much I like it 🙂

• Have you heard the one about the gay Republican who has spent time on Twitter asking why he should pay for health insurance since he’s young and in perfect shape? The same guy who was in a car accident and realized his hospital bill could be enormous? The same guy who, opposing “free healthcare” set up a GoFundMe campaign so others could pay his bills? I kid you not. #Karma

• Frances Abbott, daughter of former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, has made a video for the “Vote Yes” campaign regarding the current vote-by-mail survey on same-sex marriage down under. Her father has famously opposed legalizing marriage equality even though his own sister is openly lesbian.

• Virulently anti-gay Alabama state Rep. Micky Hammon pleads guilty to mail fraud after cashing campaign donation checks and then moving the money into his personal account to pay his bills.

• In Cairo, Egyptian police arrested 7 people for waving an LGBT rainbow flag during a concert by Lebanese indie rock band Mashrou’ Leila, whose lead singer is openly gay.

• Trump voters share why they began to have doubts about voting for Donald Trump:

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Egypt: 26 Men Accused of “Debauchery” in Bath House Raid Found Innocent

A Cairo court acquitted 26 men on Monday who had been accused of “debauchery” in a rare victory for Egypt’s gay community that has of late faced an increasingly oppressive police crackdown.

The defendants had faced between 1-9 years in prison on varying degrees of “debauchery” — the most common Egyptian legal term used in cases against men accused of homosexuality.

Though homosexuality is not technically illegal in Egypt, the police and courts have a history of persecuting the gay community in this socially-conservative country. That Monday’s ruling went they way it did surprised many observers.

“It’s unprecedented,” said longtime human rights activist Scott Long. “This just doesn’t happen.”

The session lasted barely a minute — just enough time for the judge to do a roll-call of the defendants’ names before uttering a single word: “innocent.”

The court immediately erupted into raucous celebration as the men inside the courtroom cage shouted and waved their shackled hands and attending relatives yelled and sobbed in relief.

(from CBS News)

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Egypt: Eight Men Sentenced To Three Years In Prison Due To One Minute Wedding Video

Although determined “not gay” via forensic inspection (think about that one), eight men in Egypt have been sentenced to three years in prison for “debauchery” in relation to a video depicting what authorities say represent a “gay wedding.”

From CNN:

By the big smiles, warm hugs and loud cries of ululation, the video seems to show a joyous celebration.

An Egyptian prosecutor looked at the same footage and saw something very different: a “satanic ceremony” with images that are “shameful, regrettable and anger God.”

However it is characterized, the event has landed eight men in jail for three years, an Egyptian court ruled Saturday. The men will face three years of probation upon their release, according to Egypt’s state-run Ahram Online.

It’s all because of a roughly 1-minute video set upon a Nile riverboat. It shows several well-dressed men, one of which pulls out a ring and slips it on another man’s finger. The two had a brief kiss, then hug — all as others on the boat cry out happily around them. There’s a cake with two men’s picture on it.

“May your night be filled with pomp and ceremony,” one man says.

The video went viral after posting online.

(h/t JMG)

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Egypt sentences four men to prison for “gay acts”

BBC is reporting that four men have been convicted and sentenced to time in prison for up to eight years.

Egypt does not have specific laws banning homosexuality, but prosecutors use laws on the books that criminalize “debauchery” as a work around.

One man received three years and hard labor in prison, while the other three men received sentences of eight years.  They were apparently accused of holding “deviant parties” and wearing makeup.

From BBC:

US-based Human Rights First group said it was “alarmed and disappointed” at the verdicts.

“Egypt is a bellwether state in the Arab region; what happens in Egypt sets a trend for developments throughout the Arab world,” it said in a statement.

The group said that since the ousting of President Mohammed Morsi in July 2013 there has been a rise in the number of arrests of people based on their sexual orientation.

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Egypt: President Morsi ousted, Cairo celebrates

The Egyptian military grabs power and President Mohammed Morsi’s whereabouts are unknown:

Armored vehicles, tanks and troops deployed throughout the Egyptian capital, including near the presidential palace. The army seized the headquarters of the state television and the state-run newspaper, which reported that Morsi had been told he was no longer president.

The whereabouts of the president himself, an Islamist backed by the Muslim Brotherhood, were unknown.

Security forces raided the Cairo offices of Al Jazeera’s Egyptian television channel and detained at least five staff members, a journalist at the station told Reuters.

Karim El-Assiuti told Reuters his colleagues at the Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr channel were arrested while working in the studio. The station was prevented from broadcasting from a pro-Morsi rally and its crew there was also detained, he said.

The State Department, meanwhile, warned U.S. citizens to defer travel to Egypt and told Americans already living in Egypt to depart “because of the continuing political and social unrest.”

President Obama issued a statement that said in part, “The United States is monitoring the very fluid situation in Egypt, and we believe that ultimately the future of Egypt can only be determined by the Egyptian people.” He called on the Egyptian military “to move quickly and responsibly to return full authority back to a democratically elected civilian government as soon as possible through an inclusive and transparent process.”

Read more at NBC News.

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Mubarak Steps Down in Egypt

EgyptRejoices

The streets of Egypt are filled with it’s citizens celebrating at the news that President Mubarak has stepped down after 18 days of mass protests and pressure by the people of Egypt.

From the AP: Vice President Suleiman — who appears to have lost his post as well in the military takeover — appeared grim as he delivered the short announcement.

“In these grave circumstances that the country is passing through, President Hosni Mubarak has decided to leave his position as president of the republic,” he said. “He has mandated the Armed Forces Supreme Council to run the state. God is our protector and succor.”

Nobel Peace laureate Mohammed ElBaradei, whose young suporters were among the organizers of the protest movement, told The Associated Press, “This is the greatest day of my life.”

The military, now in charge of the country, has vowed to move the country to great democracy.

This is serious history kids. All because people wanted freedom, democracy and a better life and risked their lives to get here. No fear kids.

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Unrest and turmoil in Egypt

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (photo: Italian Republic)
From the New York Times:

Tens of thousands of people demanding an end to the nearly 30-year rule of President Hosni Mubarak filled the streets of several Egyptian cities on Tuesday, in an unusually large and sometimes violent burst of civil unrest that appeared to threaten the stability of one of the United States’ closest Arab allies.

The protests, at least partly inspired by the toppling of the authoritarian government in Tunisia, began small but grew all day, with protesters occupying one of Cairo’s central squares. Security forces, which normally prevent major public displays of dissent, initially struggled to suppress the demonstrations, allowing them to swell.

But early Wednesday morning, firing rubber bullets, tear gas and concussion grenades, the police finally drove groups of demonstrators from the square, as the sit-in was transformed into a spreading battle involving thousands of people and little restraint.

Stay tuned to see how this affects not only Egypt but relations with that country both here in the U.S. and abroad.  U.S. stocks ended lower Friday as investors grew nervous about the political situation in Egypt.