Lebanon's Government Wants Crackdown on Gay Community

A letter from Lebanon's Interior Minister has increased fears in Lebanon about contracting freedoms for LGBT Lebanese.

A gay pride flag flies outside of a bar in Beirut in 2017. Source: Beirut Pride

It is by no means an exaggeration to say that Lebanon has been dealing with endless catastrophes over the past few years. It may even be an understatement. Perhaps the world’s largest ponzi scheme, run on a national level by the country’s central bank governor, fell apart, leading to the country defaulting on its debts. The nation’s currency has devalued by more than 90%, doubling the poverty rate to a staggering 82%. Government inaction and boundless squabbling had led to stagnation in everything from critical negotiations for economic aid to keeping traffic lights on.

With all these expectations and crises in mind, Lebanon’s Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi has started attacking what he sees as more deserving of his attention than everything else: the gay community.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s government, which was re-elected this month by parliament with a thin margin, was tasked with bringing Lebanon out of countless collective crises after 13 months of cabinet negotiations that ran in circles. The government has made incremental progress, passing an economic recovery plan (with only days to spare on its mandate), but anything close to bringing the country out of its misery remains years off. As Mikati moves to form a new government with the months he has until the president’s term is up, his cabinet is supposed to be operating in a caretaker capacity, with limited decision-making and with their only job being to maintain things relatively as they are until the new government comes in.

Despite this, the Lebanese Interior Minister has ordered a significant action.