Jordan
Criminalizes Four LGBT People

Four gay men, some of them transvestites, were arrested on October 23 in a park of the Jordanian capital city of Amman, the gay French magazine Tetu recently reported.

The military governor of Amman, Saad Manasir is waging a campaign against the LGBT community, according to the magazine. On several occasions he has expressed his desire to put an end to the "propagation of depravation" by using tactics of repression.

According to Al-Ghad, a daily Jordanian paper that keeps strong ties with the monarchic power, the four men had been placed in solitary confinement in order to avoid the "spread of contagious sexual diseases" within its penitentiary institution. Al-Ghad also suggests that the four be submitted to a psychiatric exam in order to find out what might have caused their "sexual anomaly." The paper supports the repression campaign until "morale" is reestablished.

Homosexuality has been legal in the Jordanian kingdom since 1951, but the mainly Muslim population usually shows virulent opposition against it. No civil rights legislation exists to protect LGBTs in the country, and the local LGBT associations are weak when they even exist. (Thibault Chareton, The Advocate)