Fun Fast Facts
- Punishments range from jail time, fines, deportation and the death penalty.
- Article 354 of the Federal Penal Code states, “Whoever commits rape on a female or sodomy with a male shall be punished by death.”
- Article 80 of the Abu Dhabi Penal Code makes sodomy punishable with imprisonment of up to 14 years.
- Article 177 of the Penal Code of Dubai imposes imprisonment of up to 10 years on consensual sodomy.
- There have been no publicised arrests since the UAE assumed a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR).
- With a male/female sex ratio of 2.2 for the total population and 2.75 for the 15-65 age group, the UAE’s gender imbalance is second highest in the world after Qatar
- Sexual relations outside of a traditional, heterosexual marriage are a crime.
LGBT-friendly organisation: LGBT Rights in UAE-Let’s Talk
- Formed in 2011 as a result of frustration with government policy
- Non-governmental organization that strives to raise awareness about the issues that face the LGBT Community in the UAE.
- A group of thinkers and citizen volunteers hoping to change our reality and that of many people like us who lack basic rights.
- The group has published several YouTube Videos.
W3JOY interviewed Abdullah from LGBT Rights in UAE-Let’s Talk:
I know for a fact that they have offered forced hormone treatment to “cure the gay out of you”.
With the UAE being given the chair of the [UN] Human Rights Council, they’ve been less and less public about arresting gays…So far this year, I haven’t seen any arrests…maybe they are re-thinking their policies.
The whole LGBT thing, they view it as a western invention, as a western decadence kind if thing.
There was a party, a gay wedding mock party…they arrested a bunch of people and said that the men would be given forced hormone treatments or –if they don’t want to– they’ll be given harsher sentenced. But the United States stepped in and a bunch other countries and human rights organisations stepped in and then they fell back on the statement, they didn’t follow through.
There are still whispers….these things are not really reported in the news.
As far as long-term punishments, a lot of the cases we’ve dealt with are ex-pats living in the UAE. They’ve been given 10 months or up to a year in jail and then deported. As far as the 14 years in jail, it’s very hard to tell.
Personal religious convictions…should not mean that you can step over someone’s rights. We will respect your right to believe whatever it is. We will defend your right to believe whatever it is. Just leave people alone.
You never know if someone’s going to be OK with it, you never know if someone’s going to do something stupid, hurt you, you never know if someone’s going to so you’re always looking over your shoulder.
There’s homosexuals everywhere. There’s an underground scene.
The younger generation, they are more accepting….that’s what we’re trying to do with our videos, get the younger generation involved…We are trying to give the younger generation a voice so they are not so hopeless.
It’s not black and white, but there does tend to be some very traditional people who are against it.
We are Emirati citizens as well, we are products of society…we are individuals. We have aspirations. We have hopes. We have dreams. We are members of your society whether you like it or not.
To hear someone keep drilling in your mind as a young person that “you’re sick, you’re an abomination” It’s not healthy.
At times it feels like we’re already halfway there, at times it feels like we’re taking twenty steps back. I try to take it day by day and for now, we’re just educating people.
I want our community to speak up and join the movement…it starts with a whisper and turns into a ripple.
W3JOY interviewed Rod, Expat living in Dubai
With every country that I visit if you have an understanding of how their culture is you learn to respect that.
90% of the population is foreign so [English] that’s the language everyone speaks.
[refering to gay life] it’s completely underground. You don’t see anything advertised.
I’ve never seen anyone in a traditional outfit [clubbing].
In 3 years I’ve never seen any gay issues being brought up on TV.
Anything that is gay related obviously is something they are trying to say that its not what they want or it always comes across as a negative thing, its never seen as a positive thing.
Websites are censored there… but you can put a shield on your computer or your phone so you can access pretty much any website anywhere in the world.
If I keep what I do low key and don’t do anything that invites the police over to my place then that’s fine.
At the end of the day its their country not my country, its not Australia, its not the UK, not the US its their country, I’m in their country. Do I agree with everything they do and say? No, but then at the end of the day its not for me to say.
Published on: Jan 31, 2013 @ 2:54
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:10 — 33.1MB)