Allegedly gay friendly Lebanon and "virginity tests" for gays--human rights watch.

Lebanon: Stop ‘Tests of Shame’ Authorities Order Anal Examinations on Men Charged With Homosexuality

August 10, 2012

(Beirut) – Lebanon’s Justice Ministry should immediately issue a directive ordering an end to anal examinations as part of police investigative procedures to determine suspects’ sexual behavior, Human Rights Watch said today. The ministry should follow the lead of the Lebanese Doctor’s Syndicate, which recently denounced the tests as a form of torture.

The Lebanese authorities should drop all homosexuality-related charges against three men arrested during a raid on a cinema in Beirut on July 28, 2012, Human Rights Watch said. The government should take steps to repeal article 534 of the Lebanese penal code, which criminalizes “sexual relations against nature” and is used to prosecute men for homosexuality.

“Forensic anal examinations of men suspected of homosexual contact, conducted in detention, constitute degrading and humiliating treatment,” said Rasha Moumneh, a Middle East and North Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch, based in Beirut. “These ‘tests of shame,’ as Lebanese rights organization the Legal Agenda has dubbed them, should stop immediately – the state has no business punishing and degrading its citizens for consensual sexual conduct.”

The Internal Security Forces vice squad arrested 36 men during the July 28 raid on a movie theater suspected of screening pornographic movies in the Burj Hammoud district of Beirut, the third such raid in recent months. The men were transferred to Hbeich police station, where they were subjected to anal examinations. The examinations are conducted by forensic doctors on orders of the public pros


Much more at:

http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/08/10/lebanon-stop-tests-shame


The group victimized may change, as may the group doing the victimizing, but bigotry never seems to end, no matter how much we think the species has evolved.