LGBT activists stage rare Lebanon sit-in

Beirut, May 15: Some 50 activists backing the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community staged a rare sit-in Sunday in Lebanon to demand the abolition of a law criminalising relations "against nature".

In the first such protest in four years, they also demanded the release of four transsexual women as they gathered outside the Hbeish gendarmerie in Beirut, where activists say morality police often hold such suspects.

"Homosexuality is not a disease," and "Sex is not illegal -- your law is archaic," read a placard at the event organised by the Lebanon-based Helem association, considered to be the most important Arab group defending LGBT rights.

"Repeal 534" could also be read, a reference to the article in the Lebanese penal code under which sexual relations "against nature" are outlawed and punishable by up to one year in prison. Helem chief Genwa Samhat told AFP the sit-in, two days before the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, "calls for the abolition of this section of law dating from the (1920-1943) French mandate in Lebanon".

"Most people arrested under this law aren't detained in the act but in the street because of their appearance," she said.

AFP