Gay Egyptians face “horrific” discrimination and harassment when looking for somewhere to live, a U.N. special rapporteur said, urging the government to give LGBT+ people better protection. At the end of a visit to Egypt this week, Leilani Farha, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, said LGBT+ people were being evicted, denied housing and harassed because of their sexual orientation. “I cannot turn a blind eye to this. It felt so urgent to me, and I am in a privileged position to talk about a very taboo subject,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Homosexuality is not explicitly criminalized in Egypt, but LGBT+ people have long been targeted under laws on debauchery. “Landlords are refusing to rent to someone who is LGBT. The treatment isn’t just suspicious looks – LGBT (people) are being verbally harassed, physically assaulted,” said Farha.