{"article":{"id":110494,"heading":"PROTEST AGAINST TORTURE OF IRAQI PRISONERS","author":"Pedja","created":"2004-05-18 21:48:26","modified":"2013-11-11 00:29:45","last_modified":"Mon, 11 Nov 2013 07:29:45","article":"

Because of the escalation of violence by American solders against Iraqi prisoners of war, the group for the promotion of LGBT rights Queeria calls upon all NGOs in Serbia and the region to reject donations from the American administration and government foundations.

We believe that with the funding which many of us receive, we indirectly support the politics of war, killing, destruction and many other forms of violence. We must remember that from the same funds comes money used to finance the arming of military units that participate in armed conflicts throughout the world.

We think that humiliation of prisoners by forcing them to have sexual contacts with other same-sex prisoners and putting them into homosexual positions is degrading and shameful and shows that America is unprepared to reach political agreements and to solve problems in a non-violent way.

Wars, as military productions, not only produce brutal violence and killing but also spread and support prejudice and create new enemies and fears and, in this case, an explicit emphasis upon homophobia.

With forced homosexual activities, they are invalidating the masculinity of the male war prisoner, placing him in the role of a woman, of a “real\" homosexual, a person without the power to defend him\/herself, thereby degrading not only the captive but also socially marginalized groups: women, gays and lesbians, and persons of other nationalities… The sensationalized staging of homosexual activities performed as an act of force and torture serves to enlarge homophobia because it shows a distorted image of real human relations.

We would like to support and to encourage our friends from the American LGBT community to condemn and persevere in opposing use of these cases in Bush’s media propaganda and his regime's exclusion of diversity and differences, and to condemn the actions of American solders in Iraq.



Activists of Queeria LGBT group Belgrade

Serbia & Montenegro

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