As conflicts rage across the Middle East, one country has been largely ignored by the American media. Despite many violent and disturbing events, the country of Yemen has gone almost entirely unmentioned since the Arab Spring, even as a mosaic of aggressive forces tear the nation to shreds. The spotlight fell on the small Gulf State briefly last year, when the Iran-backed Houthi Islamist militia took over the capital city of Sana’a, and then again when they occupied the southern port city of Aden and sent the internationally recognized government of Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi into exile. One issue that never caught the attention of the New York Times, however, even for a moment, was the plight of Yemen’s struggling gay community.
Yemen is one of the few countries in the world in which homosexuality is still punishable by death, but it is not the government that enforces that rule. Rather, the primary perpetrators of homophobic attacks of late have been militants affiliated with Al Qaeda, which has taken advantage of the leadership vacuum created by the ongoing conflict to take hold of significant amounts of territory. Many Yemeni citizens who once thought of themselves as secular or liberal have enlisted in the brutal terrorist army as a means of combatting the Houthi forces that began the war, so that now even Aden, with its legacy of relative progressivism, is home to a powerful Al Qaeda presence. An estimated eight residents of Aden have been murdered over the past few days over their sexual orientations.
Over the summer, I put the skills I learned working for The Sagamore to the test in writing an article for The Tower online policy magazine about Yemen’s gay community. Through my interviews and through responses to the article, I found myself increasingly in contact with several members of that community, and those people with whom I have been speaking have coalesced into a new organization called the Network for Gay Rights in Yemen (NGRY). As a team, we have been seeking ways to provide resources for gay Yemenis, including an anonymous online forum and a pamphlet of written resources, such as Arabic-language Quranic arguments defending homosexuality.
Those long-term goals, however, are insufficient for three men who are in especially severe danger right now. One of them, age 30, has already survived one assassination attempt and is living in hiding. Another, age 27, has endured harassment and time in prison for his sexual orientation. Yet another, age 26, was forced out of his home when an Al Qaeda militant moved in to the house next door. The identities of these three men have been compromised, and they are now struggling to find their way to safety. Leaving the country, however, costs money that they do not have.
NGRY has been raising money through a crowd funding campaign to support these three individuals in their quest for security. Their lives are urgently at risk. If it is within your means, I hope that you will help them with a small donation.
-Ben Gladstone