Among a long list of things not to be in Iraq, you can add “gay.”
Mainly, though, it all comes under the main thing not to be in Iraq, and that thing is “there.”
Mainly, you don’t want to be there.
A report came wafting through the air today from my television, tuned today to CNN. Apparently over the past few days, 6 men have been killed in Iraq. Killed for the crime of being gay.
From 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.”
“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.”
What made me cringe was the CNN reporter, whose name escapes me right now, used the anti-gay codewords in his report: “sexual preference.”
As if these guys had a choice.
A preference.
The argument of evangelical Christians, and I guess Muslims, the world around is that gay love, antithetical to either religion, is an option much like how you choose a religion, a career or your favorite brand of ice cream.
If it hasn’t been completely obvious that this just isn’t true, maybe this reporting will be convincing evidence that a gay lifestyle is not a choice, it is as central to a person’s being as hair color. Because in Iraq, being gay has some fairly lethal consequences.
