'Scary to be queer': Lebanon cracks down on LGBTQ rights
Lebanon's LGBTQ community, long among the most vocal and visible in the Middle East, has been targeted by a crackdown that has seen queer activists harassed and Pride gatherings cancelled.
It has heaped pressure on a community that already lost many of its safe spaces in the devastating 2020 Beirut port explosion and been depleted by an exodus driven by Lebanon's severe economic crisis.
An icy chill went through the crisis-tested community when the interior ministry in a June 24 letter instructed security forces to clamp down on events "promoting sexual perversion".
"It feels very intimidating and quite scary to be a queer person in Lebanon right now," said Tarek Zeidan, head of the Beirut-based Helem association, considered the preeminent Arab group defending LGBTQ rights.
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