The gay underground railroad in Iraq
There’s been widespread anti-gay violence in Iraq this year, and we’ve not heard much about it. Police increased their harassment of homosexuals and bodies of openly gay men were found mutilated on Baghdad streets – the victims of armed militias.
Human Rights Watch reports that thousands of gay men have been tortured and hundreds have been killed. So what Human Rights Watch is doing is spiriting gay Iraqis out of the country, paying their airfare to another location.
New Hampshire Public Radio’s Word of Mouth checks in with Scott Long, the director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights program at Human Rights Watch. Also in this interview is Matthew McAllester, who wrote about the gay underground railroad in New York magazine.
