Lebanon

Global News

Added on: 03/12/2024
During the first week of August 2023, Lebanon made international headlines for (a failed, performative) attempt to ban the movie Barbie by a (Muslim Shia) government minister…

Global News

Added on: 01/25/2024
01/24/2024
A coalition of rights groups launched a campaign – #SecureOurSocials – on Tuesday, 23 January, calling on social media giant Meta to strengthen protections for LGBT+ people in the Middle…

Global News

Added on: 11/14/2023
11/09/2023
When Mahmoud’s father, a well-known sheikh in Aleppo city in Syria, found out his youngest son was gay, he was furious. “He pointed a rifle at my…

Global News

Added on: 10/01/2023
09/30/2023
At least three people were injured in central Beirut when a march in defence of LGBT rights was attacked by a group of purported Christian extremists. As…

Global News

Added on: 09/17/2023
09/16/2023
From Lebanon to Iraq, politicians in the Middle East have stepped up their anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, raising concerns about an increase in homophobic violence and even tougher penalties…

Global News

Added on: 09/11/2023
09/10/2023
Amnesty International says hate speech and incitement have been rising in Lebanon, once a haven for LGBTQ people, and now that the line has been crossed into…

Global News

Added on: 09/02/2023
Rainbows, school books, movies and drag shows have all been targeted in Lebanon in recent weeks as politicians, religious leaders and vigilante groups step up a campaign…

Global News

Added on: 08/10/2023
08/10/2023
BEIRUT, Aug 9 (Reuters) – Lebanon’s culture minister moved to ban the film “Barbie” from cinemas on Wednesday, saying it “promotes homosexuality” and contradicts religious values. Minister Mohammad…

Global News

Added on: 08/02/2023
Anti-gay remarks made on Saturday by a Hezbollah leader in Lebanon who has recently called for anti-gay violence sparked panic and terror among lesbian, gay, bisexual and…

Global News

Added on: 07/12/2023
07/11/2023
“When I’m trying to impress someone I’m into, I like to send them classical poems that celebrate male beauty,” Fouad, a 26-year-old gay man, explained during a…

Global News

Added on: 02/28/2023
02/27/2023
Lebanon’s LGBTQ community is no longer safe online, as its members have become a target of both security officers and private individuals seeking to exploit them. In…

Global News

Added on: 02/22/2023
Government officials across the Middle East and North Africa region are targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people based on their online activity on social media,…

Global News

Added on: 12/07/2022
12/6/2022
On the outskirts of Yogyakarta, an Indonesian city that’s home to many universities, is a small boarding school with a mission that seems out of place in…

Global News

Added on: 11/08/2022
A new project launched by LGBTQ rights activists based in Lebanon and Paris offers emotional support services to members of the LGBTQ community — initially to refugees…

Global News

Added on: 09/14/2022
09/13/2022
At the end of June, a widely circulated video showed a floral display, installed for Pride Month in Beirut, being vandalised. The video was shot by the…

Global News

Added on: 08/02/2022
In late June, an account launched on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Telegram called Fetrah — the Arabic word for “human instinct.” Soon after, the account posted a…

Global News

Added on: 07/23/2022
Nour never felt entirely safe as a queer person in Lebanon. But in the past few years, the 25-year-old pharmacist had begun letting his guard down, meeting…

Global News

Added on: 07/19/2022
Nour never felt entirely safe as a queer person in Lebanon. But in the past few years, the 25-year-old pharmacist had begun letting his guard down, meeting…

Global News

Added on: 06/25/2022
Lebanon’s interior minister gave instructions to security forces on Friday to stop gatherings of the LGBTQ community, following pressure from religious institutions. Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi instructed…

Global News

Added on: 04/09/2022
Transgender people, whose assigned gender at birth does not match their gender identity, face a grim reality in much of the Middle East and North Africa region,…

Global News

Added on: 04/05/2022
04/04/2022
On a sofa in a dimly lit bar, two young women finish their beers while they caress each other’s hands. Oblivious to the music, to the people…

Global News

Added on: 03/07/2022
BEIRUT/LOS ANGELES, March 7 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Before Omar leaves home in the morning, he carefully uninstalls the apps on his phone one by one –…

Global News

Added on: 02/12/2022
02/11/2022
A Lebanese director who has just scooped up an award at Sundance Film Festival says she wants her short to “break the norms” on sexuality and gender…

Global News

Added on: 01/18/2022
01/17/2022
After fleeing to Turkey from their home country of Jordan in July 2020, LGBTQI activist Alshaima Omama Alzubi has finally arrived in Australia. The 25-year-old Jordanian refugee…

Global News

Added on: 12/28/2021
12/27/2021
A Jordanian LGBTQI+ ‘rights defender’ and refugee on their way to Australia has been detained in Lebanon. According to Amnesty International Australia, AOA, a 25-year-old lesbian, non-binary…

Global News

Added on: 10/12/2020
10/11/2020
AMMAN/BEIRUT — In Damascus, Amira al-Tabbaa lived her life in murmurs. Officially, homosexuality and offenses against “public decency” are illegal in Syria. That is why when Amira…

Global News

Added on: 09/23/2020
Firas Nabulsi remembers dancing in drag under a rain of glitter, rose petals cascading from beneath his wig, the Beirut nightclub crowd cheering as he lip-synched to…

World Voices

Added on: 08/26/2020
Ari Weinstein
Alturi Contributor
How did you become interested in this type of activism? When I was younger, I worked a lot with the trans sex worker community because I used…

Global News

Added on: 08/18/2020
08/18/2020
Lebanon, a country ravaged by war for 15 years, had its most devastating blast on August 4, 2020. The blast killed 180 people, injured more than 6,000,…

Global News

Added on: 08/17/2020
08/16/2020
The offices of Lebanon’s oldest LGBT+ advocacy group were almost destroyed in the devastating Beirut blast, but staff are already back providing vital support to the queer…