Lebanese Activists Rally Against Forensic Rape

Protesting anal probes of prisoners

The movement for gay rights -- and, more broadly, against subjecting prisoners to officially sanctioned anal probes -- has arrived in Lebanon:

Dozens of people demonstrated outside the law courts in the Lebanese capital on Saturday to protest the use of anal "tests" on men suspected of homosexuality, which is a criminal offence in the Arab country.

The rally followed a July 28 police raid on a gay venue in a working class district of Beirut when 36 men were taken into custody and forced to undergo the examinations, reportedly to determine their sexual orientation….

Men and women - ranging from gay and lesbian young adults to a father and daughter - chanted in unison and held banners that read: "United to abolish the tests of shame."

Other homemade signs struck a more sarcastic tone: "Honorable minister, before you test my anus, at least take me out to dinner," read one.

Comments

[Rich]

"test my anus"

Perhaps *that* will replace "Bite me", especially when uttered with a Middle-Eastern accent.

[Almanian 1]

Leave it to the Lebanese to get all butthurt about this.

[Dagny T.]

I am confused as to how they are even pretending those are supposed to "test" for gayness? See if the person they're forcibly penetrating becomes aroused?

[Almanian 1]

They should just serve them all baked beans and do the Fart Test?.
"Whooooosh = teh gaiz, amirite?

[tarran]

The idea is that how the anus dilates in reaction to the probe is different if one is used to being anally penetrated.

Coincidentally, the doc in my induction physical in the U.S. Navy also was a fan of this theory, although he didn't actually attempt penetration. It's positively medieval and stupid.

What Arab (and Turkish) government officials do in these tests for gayness is to basically humiliate gays. There is a fear and loathing of gays because of the way their existence disrupts the cultural norms regarding masculinity.

[Mr Whipple]

The Turks? I've heard stories about Turkish sailors.

[Dagny T.]

Wow, that is colossally stupid. The humiliate part, I got. What evil bastards.

[sarcasmic]

Even old New York was once New Amsterdam
Why they changed it I can't say
People just liked it better that way

Istanbul was Constantinople
Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works?
That's nobody's business but the Turks

So take me back to Constantinople
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works?
That's nobody's business but the Turks

[EDG reppin' LBC]

I have an ex-girlfriend that was Turkish (and insane). She said that Turkish guys were always grabbing each other, and made it sound like homosexual behavior was fairly common even among "straight" Turkish men.

[tarran]

A person could write a book on the homoeroticism and homophobia in Turkish culture.

It's really messed up.

[Killazontherun]

Just being Muslim violates any code of masculinity based upon it tangential biological foundations instead of mere cultural norms given that Islam means 'submission', and to submit means to no longer be wholly a man, but instead dependent on the grace of another.

Is Paradise worth losing your manhood over? Fuck no.

[Lost_In_Translation]

Turkish bathes...come on, it was a hotbed of gayness, right?

[Tim]

The Witch: I'm not a witch I'm not a witch!
Sir Bedevere: But you are dressed as one
The Witch: *They* dressed me up like this!
Crowd: We didn't! We didn't...
The Witch: And this isn't my nose. It's a false one.
Sir Bedevere: [lifts up her false nose] Well?
Peasant 1: Well, we did do the nose.
Sir Bedevere: The nose?
Peasant 1: And the hat, but she is a witch!
Crowd: Yeah! Burn her! Burn her!
Sir Bedevere: Did you dress her up like this?
Peasant 1: No!
Peasant 3, Peasant 2: No!
Peasant 3: No!
Peasant 1: No!
Peasant 3, Peasant 2: No!
Peasant 1: Yes!
Peasant 2: Yes!
Peasant 1: Yeah a bit.
Peasant 3: A bit!
Peasant 1, Peasant 2: A bit!
Peasant 2: a bit
Peasant 1: But she has got a wart!
Random Person in the crowd: *cough* *cough*

[Mint Berry Crunch]

"I had a guy's finger up my asshole tonight."

"Is it Friday already?"

[sarcasmic]

What do they think they are? Aliens or something?

[o3]

probes?

is virginia gov bob transvag mcdonald involved?

[Mr Whipple]

Did someone say "Pear of Anguish"?

[Tim]

Lebanese lesbians, try saying that one five times fast.

[Brandybuck]

And if you can, then you might just have the lingual dexterity to "convert" one of them...

[Christina]

Do (straight) Arabs not understand how anal intercourse works? Someone has to be a Top. Granted, in long-term relationships they switch roles occaisionally, but most gay dudes have a preference that they stick to, especially for fleeting encounters.

[Tim]

Sir Bedevere: ...and that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be banana shaped.
King Arthur: This new learning amazes me, Sir Bedevere. Explain again how sheep's bladders may be employed to prevent earthquakes.

[Almanian 1]

Who are you who is so wise in the ways of science?

[Copernicus]

q: what else floats?
a: small rocks?

[John]

Since pederasty is pretty common in the Arab world. Maybe the don't think being on top is gay.

[Brandybuck]

There is some truth to this. I'm not sure about Arab culture, but for much of history being homosexual was about being effeminate or submissive. Ancient soldiers used to sodomize their male captives as an act of dominance, and did not consider themselves gay.

[John]

I wonder if there may have been some kind of religion involved with the desire for these tests. This isn't in the American south. So it couldn't be.

[Tim]

Buddism?

[John]

Scientology. It must be Scientology.

[Metazoan]

Native lifeways?

[R C Dean]

Nah, must be the Maronite Christians.

[$park?]

It's about time someone tried to crack down on this behavior.

[VG Zaytsev]

They're just looking for the demon worm that causes homosexuality.

[wareagle]

every time I hear some faux outrage over oppression in the US, THIS is the story that needs to be shoved in folks' faces.

[Randian]

Definitely. And every time someone's air conditioner breaks, we should just point out that they could be living in Zimbabwe!

[Stormy Dragon]

So as long as the US is just slightly less execrable than some other country, everything is okay?

Don't like Obama's tax increases? "Hey it could be worse. In North Korea they banned private property." Don't like the new gun laws? "Hey it could be worse. In Japan guns are outlawed." Don't like that Chick-Fil-A is being supressed for the political views of it's founder? "Hey it could be worse, in Egypt Christians are being lynched."

[Brandybuck]

No, it's about the left turning a blind eye to the oppression that happens in other culture. The left collectively got its panties in a bunch over one guy at Chic-fil-a expressing his political opinion about gay marriage, but NOT ONE WORD from them over the horrible treatment of days in the Middle East.

Why boycott Chic-fil-a when you could be boycotting Arab oil? Oh right... the left doesn't actually eat at Chic-fil-a so the boycott is no burden on them...

[Loki]

Tomorrow there will be a follow up story: "Lebanese Gay Rights Activists Gang Raped by Lebanese Security Officials."

[John]

You think you are kidding. The same people who debate about whether stoning or dropping a wall on homosexuals is the appropriate punishment, will think nothing of engaging in pederasty. Imams fucking the boys at the Madras actually happens and happens often. You explain that to me because I certainly can't explain it.

[R C Dean]

Not a big mystery, John.

Boy-fucking imams are evil.

Its who they are.

[Randian]

Not that I have any sympathy for the overall evilness of the Islamic faith, but is this not the attitude that the Greeks had about homosexuality as well? OK with the young 'uns, but after that you were expected to grow up and start getting with women?

[Lost_In_Translation]

a hole is a hole...a roll is a roll and if I don't get no holes, then you don't get no rolls.

my apologies to Mr. Brooks.

[Lost_In_Translation]

Imams fucking the boys at the Madras actually happens and happens often.

Sandusky converts to Islam...more at 10

[tarran]

There is a fucked up sort of cultural archetype that pops up from time to time - where all these twisted notions of sexual roles and a cultural inability to be 'weak' impel people do very nasty things to people who are sexually 'submissive'.

It's pretty endemic to Islam, and I think it's no accident, Islam has encoded a bunch of cultural stuff from the pre-islamic arabic culture that was pretty fucked up.

It also popped up in Rome (see Tiberius and Calligula's reigns), and among the early Nazi party and Japan during the Tojo era.

I don't know *why* this is, but it shows up in totalitarian culture after totalitarian culture, and I don't think the correlation is accidental.

[Lost_In_Translation]

when you oppress people, you've got to give them someone to oppress so they feel less bad about their own oppression.

[tarran]

One other thing, this cultural rigidity is why Islam - in the long run and absent a serious reformation on the order of Jesus establishing a new covenant with God - is utterly doomed.

The rules work if you are dirt poor, living in a violent society where tribe and clan are eking out a subsistence living.

They are terrible for people trying to live in cosmopolitan, wealthy societies - which is why people flee the faith or water it down utterly every chance they get. One aspect of fundamentalist Islamic terrorism is that it's a desperate attempt to stop this backsliding - which is why Al Queda slaughters apostates with far more vigor than it goes after infidels.

[Brutus]

Remember when Beirut was considered the Paris of the Mideast?