| Our Mission |
QATGA is a global collective of activists against hatred, incitement terror and violence directed against members of the LGBT commuity by opressive regimes such as Syria, Saudi Arabia & the Palestinian Authority and other tyrannies and by terrorist groups. Through our diversity we find unity. Through truth to power, we fight bigotry & opression. |
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| New film shows plight of gays in Egypt.
Posted 7 May 2004 A new film to be shown at the "Flaming Film Festival" in the United States next week will host a premier of John Scagliotti's film "Dangerous Living" which looks at gay communities in the developing world and in particular at the harsh reality of the gay experience in Egypt. The festival is to take place in Mineappolis, starting next Wednesday. The film "Dangerous Living" will be screened on Thursday, after which there will be a panel discussion in which people ( and presumably also members of the audience ) will be able to make comments on the film. John Scagliotti previously directed two well known documenatries on gay and lesbian life in the United States including "Stonewall 25: Voices of Pride & Protest" (1994) and "After Stonewall" (1999). |
EGYPTIAN AMBASSADOR - "NO DISCRIMINATION AGAINST GAYS IN EGYPT" (Right...) Posted 22 May 2002 In an amazing statement the Egyptian Ambassador to the United States, Nabil Fahmy, has declared that there is "no discrimination against gays in Egypt." Responding to a letter sent by forty congressmen protesting at the wave of arrests of gay men since May last year, Fahmy declared that the men "were convicted essentially under a law which penalizes promiscuity/prostitution" and "that there is no distinction or discrimination based on a person's sexual orientation." So, could he explain why 29 gay men who had been arrested at Cairo's Queen Boat discotheque had been given hard labour sentences based on the evidence of forced medical examinations while thousands of men enjoy nights out at "heterosexual hang-outs" on Cairo's Pyramids Road, some of them renown as pick-up points for prostitutes, without any fear of arrest or prosecution ? No, he couldn't. Well, could he explain why gay men were being routinely tortured by police and state security forces ? Why, a fifteen year old boy, suspected of gay sex, had been beaten on his feet with a falaka so that he could hardly walk ? No, he couldn't. Could he explain why the government controlled newspapers had continuously denounced gay men as "perverts" and "degenerates" and published the names and employment details of all those arrested ? No, he couldn't. House Democrat Barney Frank was outraged by the response. "Egyptian authorities are applying this law virtually exclusively against adult gay men who are doing no harm to others, and this shows that a clear and active anti-gay policy exists in Egypt." The forty congressmen have since written again to the ambassador in words that only thinly disguise their contempt. "your selective invocation of certain human rights conventions when it suits your purposes, and your ignoring of others when they don't, is unpersuasive." What's your response ? Why not ring the Egyptian Embassy in Washington DC on (202) 895 5400 ! |