Source: Gulf Daily News
BAHRAIN'S gay community, human rights activists, and foreign embassies were furious yesterday over a parliamentary campaign to stamp out homosexuality, reports Gulf Daily News, an English-language newspaper in Bahrain.

MPs this week demanded that the Interior Ministry stop granting residence permits to foreign homosexuals and that it deport any that are already in the country, as soon as they are detected.

Under the proposals, according to a report in Gulf Daily News, students could soon be spied on as part of what some MPs envision as a campaign to "stamp out" homosexuality.

The MPs called for the government to monitor schools and for pupils who "veer towards homosexuality" to be punished.

MPs also called for regular inspections to root out homosexuals at massage parlors, health clubs and hair salons.

A parliamentary committee voted this week in favor of an Al Menbar bloc proposal to oblige the government to prepare a study to determine how widespread homosexuality is in Bahrain.

The proposal has already been studied by the foreign affairs, defense and national security committee, which recommended it.

One Bahraini homosexual said it would be almost impossible to monitor the sexual leanings of students, without turning schools into concentration camp regimes.

Even then, it would be impossible to stamp out homosexuality and that trying to hide it would only make it more attractive to curious youngsters.

"There is nothing legal or illegal you can do to stop it (homosexuality)," he said.

"It is better to educate the public than keep it under cover because this is what will attract people to it - it's reverse psychology."

Some expat homosexuals said MPs were wrongly putting homosexual prostitution in the same light as gay relationships.

"I think it's unfair to generalize on a certain group of people," said a gay Filipino artist.

"This is against human rights and I think half the world would be against them.

"It's like a witch-hunt. And what's the test? If you talk gay or walk gay, you are out? How can they implement it?"

Another homosexual, who was once married, said MPs seemed to have a misconception that homosexuals are perverse and dirty.

Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society regional and international relations director Faisal Fulad said that while Bahrain's tradition and religion should be respected, the parliament proposal was illogical and out of date for modern times.

"In the modern world it's normal, it's not a disease - many homosexuals are lawyers, doctors and ministers. "Punishment never cures society, it should be through education and awareness in the family."

Mr Fulad said he was however against homosexual prostitution and MPs were right to come down hard on this.

MPs urged the ministry to raise awareness amongst students, possibly through lectures given by visiting health specialists, psychiatrists, or sociologists.

Committee secretary and Al Menbar MP Shaikh Mohammed Khalid Mohammed said that people were complaining about homosexuals entering the country to work in massage or hair salons.

"Those people are either from the Philippines or Thailand and they come for these two jobs, which they use as a curtain for their homosexual behavior and immorality," he said.

The committee called on the Industry and Commerce Ministry to monitor massage and hair salons to ensure that they have no closed rooms and that violators be prosecuted.

A Thai Embassy spokesman said homosexuality was globally accepted and it was against human rights to discriminate against gays.

"Everything has to abide by human rights and international law and Bahrain has signed the agreements," he said.

Philippine Ambassador Eduardo Maglaya said expats came to the country to work not to 'spread' homosexuality.

Apparently trying unsuccessfully to be tolerant, the ambassador told a Gulf Daily News reporter, "It's difficult to watch all of the borders of Bahrain to see who is limp wristed or not."

"I don't know how the United Nations Human Rights Council would react to this but I'm sure it would be different from what our honorable MPs think."

Full article: Gay clamp fury | Gulf Daily News
'Root out gays in our schools' | Gulf Daily News