Gay Forced Dark: Incredible Gay Experiences of Straight Guys

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Rape and other forms of sexual violence of comparable gravity violate international treaties, some of which Syria has signed or to which it is a party. Some survivors interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they did not seek any medical or psychological treatment in Syria because they did not trust the healthcare system and they feared to talk about what happened. They pointed to the fact that, as in many humanitarian contexts, programming related to sexual violence prevention and response tends to target female survivors and is geared to meet their needs.

The most common form of male rape occurred with objects, including batons, wooden sticks, pipes, and bottles, a tactic which has been used during interrogations since early in the conflict. Men and boys, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, were subject to sexual assault and rape in detention centers and checkpoints. After spending a few years in Sednaya prison she was transferred to Hama Central Prison after the conflict started in 2011, where other detainees raped her multiple times.LGBT people are often seen as shameful and a disgrace to their families, which leads to rejection and, in some cases, death threats and being targeted for “honor killings. Toufiq, a 25-year-old queer survivor, fled the army after one month of service and came to Lebanon in November 2017.

As in the case of women survivors of sexual violence, shame and stigma around this issue, fed by gender stereotypes, prevents male survivors from coming forward. Interviewees told Human Rights Watch that the intelligence officers would rape detainees by penetrating their rectums, often with sticks or sharp objects. In 2011, six homosexual men were beaten viciously with electric cables by security agents and threatened with rape. However, we have included them because they were perceived as effeminate men, or gay men, and subject to sexual violence on that basis.This report focuses on the cases of GBT survivors; in other reports published by Human Rights Watch and other NGOs, evidence of heterosexual survivors’ experiences is featured. Yousef told Human Rights Watch he heard from his friend while in detention that he was also being raped regularly. Some survivors told Human Rights Watch that they were subjected to this type of violence from the very beginning of their detention because security officers knew about their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Some referred to this as acting like “real men” or suppressing behaviors that might be perceived as “soft. A 2014 Syria COI report states: Men were tortured and raped on the grounds of their sexual orientation at government checkpoints in Damascus.

Legal scholar Sandesh Sivakumaran explains: At an individual level, the male is stigmatized as a victim and the community is informed that their male members, their protectors, are unable to protect themselves.Nur, a 25-year-old gay survivor, was detained in Palestine branch, a detention facility run by the Syrian Military Intelligence, in 2012 for being late for her military service. At the time we had a number of officers who had the unenviable task of watching a number of pornographic videos, including those featuring children, which had been seized in Soho.