Gay Forced Dark: Incredible Gay Experiences of Straight Guys

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At the exact time “Twilight” was being mainlined into our cultural veins, this quiet and beautiful Swedish film was the exact antidote audiences do desperately needed. Director Tomas Alfredson doesn’t always seem concerned with genre convention in his intimate story of a bullied 12-year old and the vampire he befriends. In the digital age, horror films are too often reliant on a flavorless shadowy look, but in Hoyt Van Hoytema’s cinematography not only can we see into the darkness, it is filled with one of the most unique color palettes in modern cinema. While creating an atmosphere in which we sense a lurking presence in the dark haze, the gorgeous and muted colors create an intimacy with the young characters. —CO All survivors of rape and other forms of sexual violence should have access to quality health services in line with international standards. [162] This includes women, men and boys, whether heterosexual or gay, bisexual, transgender, or non-binary. Featuring shirtless shots of Sebastian Stan (“Avengers: Endgame”), Taylor Kitsch (“Friday Night Lights”), and Chase Crawford (“Gossip Girl”), “The Covenant” is basically the guys’ version of “The Craft.” The movie follows a group of teenagers at a prestigious New England prep school who belong to an ancient magical covenant that endows them with supernatural powers. While they have romances with girls, the way the camera objectifies the male bodies onscreen, paired with the casting of four baby-faced hotties with perfectly spiky 2006-era haircuts, has led to the film being claimed as queer. As it was notoriously panned by critics, “The Covenant” will take all the fans it can get. —JD Since the Syrian conflict began in March 2011, men and boys and transgender women have been subjected to rape and other forms of sexual violence by the Syrian government and non-state armed groups, including the extremist armed group Islamic State (also known as ISIS). Heterosexual men and boys are vulnerable to sexual violence in Syria, but men who are gay or bisexual—or perceived to be—and transgender women are particularly at risk.

However, evidence suggests that gay and bisexual men and transgender individuals are more vulnerable to this type of violence because they are targeted for violence, with or without conflict, based on their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. [31] Evidence shows that with armed conflict, targeting of gay men, transgender men, and women increases. [32] Underreporting and Misrepresentation Provide funding for medical, psychological and social support programs in Lebanon for male survivors and GBT survivors of sexual violence, with increased emphasis on trauma therapy, without diverting the funding from services for women and girls. Yousef explained how his life changed after he was raped and sexually abused by intelligence officers in 2012: At the beginning I was so depressed. I questioned, ‘Why me?’ It affected my daily life and sexual life. I still feel pain. It is hard to remember, to talk about this. It is there, and it doesn’t go away. I hope it helps [others] really and it [rape and other forms of sexual violence in detention] will never happen. Every year I think it is not there, but it is there, the memory of it. [155] Evidence gathered by Human Rights Watch show that GBT individuals in the military were specifically targeted on the basis of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Interviewees told Human Rights Watch that GBT men and boys who serve in the army are often subject to rape and other forms of sexual violence in military prisons, or by other soldiers in the army. “There were men who looked more soft, [appeared] to be like a woman more than a man, who didn’t have beards. They were harassed more than others. To tell you the truth, if their [the soldiers’] girls were absent, these men would be [become] the victim,” Hatem, a heterosexual survivor who served in the army, said. [78]Sexual violence against men and boys—just as against women and girls—may be used as a form of torture. [41] Recognizing that rape and other forms of sexual violence can amount to torture is important for the application of legal instruments that prohibit torture and can trigger international action for accountability. [42] In addition, the legal category of rape is not available to men in many national law settings, and torture is used more often in advocacy and criminal proceedings. Therefore, crimes that amounts to torture should be labelled as such.

Repeal Article 520 of the Syrian Penal Code 1949, which criminalizes “any unnatural sexual intercourse.” Stigma and shame around sexual violence are two of the main reasons why all survivors of sexual violence refrain from reporting sexual violence and from seeking help. [195]Human Rights Watch documented cases where GBT survivors said they were subject to rape by other fellow prisoners in central prisons when they were minors or were forced to rape each other. Zarifa, a 22-year-old gay man, who uses female pronouns, said that her family complained about her to the Syrian government once they realized her sexual orientation, when she was around 13 years old. [106] Intelligence officials detained her and kept her in a solitary cell underground for a week. Then she was transferred to a central prison. She said: A week later they took me to a collective prison [central prison] where I was raped almost every night. I don’t even know if the mukhabarat knew about it. People in the prison not the guards [were raping me]. I was with adults. There were also many minors with me. I believe that they faced the same things like me…. I meant minors were being raped at night…. Rape was committed by adults in the prison and the rest of the violence by guards. I was in the prison until 17 years old—late 17. [107] Sabah, 40, a transgender woman, was detained in Sednaya, a military prison in Damascus, before the Syrian conflict started. Sabah was arrested in 2007 for hiding a friend who was chased by the police for reasons unrelated to the conflict. She was taken to military prison because at the time she was serving in the army and was on leave. 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. Sabah stayed in the central prison until 2015. “I was always soft looking. It deprived me from my family and my life,” she said. [104] Sabah explained: I was almost 32. Even if you are caught with other people, they would interrogate you individually. It is the same routine that applied on everybody just for being gay or trans. We are beaten, treated with violence and insulted. Not by one person but by many. They could tell from our appearance [that we were trans or gay]. Perpetrators were both guards and prisoners. If someone [other prisoners] asked for me, I had to go and see them among the normal [other] prisoners [for them to abuse or rape me]. You couldn’t say no or we would be thrown from buildings, slaughtered, or beaten with sharp objects. [105] Sexual violence against men and boys in general is also carried out through stigma and norms that denigrate same-sex sexual relations. Dustin Lewis, senior researcher at the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict, writes: [I]t would be inaccurate to say there is no ‘gay’ or ‘homosexual’ component to male-male sexual violence. To the contrary, it is in part precisely because of the potential negative effect of imputing a ‘gay’ identity or ‘homosexual’ behavior to the victim that male-male sexual violence can be psychologically and emotionally damaging…. [25]

We cannot change what happened to them; but the most important thing is rehabilitation. Without being rehabilitated these people cannot live, work or talk about this. The presence of NGOs working with the LGBT population in Lebanon and their outreach to survivors plays a significant role in GBT survivors’ awareness and access to services. Gay and bisexual men and transgender women interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that they were getting information about STIs and HIV from the LGBT organizations in Lebanon. [177] In Robert Wise’s critically acclaimed 1963 version, the romance between Theo and Eleanor could merely be hinted at, though it has long puzzled and fascinated fans of the film. Played by Julie Harris and Claire Bloom, one of the film’s most famous scenes features the women clutching each other’s hands in fear before realizing it was actually a spirit. —JD 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. [137] As in other countries around the world, survivors of sexual violence in Syria and Lebanon often face stigma and rejection by family and community members. As a result, many survivors said they did not tell their families about the violence, nor did they seek help.Like its genre cousin, science fiction, horror films have long used supernatural terrors as stand-ins for real-life fears. When Jordan Peele used the genre to show white supremacy as the ultimate terror in “Get Out,” he was inspired by years of socio-political readings of his favorite horror films. Even though openly LGBTQ characters in horror were rare until recently, when it comes to queer subtext, the genre is ripe for exploring themes such as possession, body transformation, fear of the other, uncontrollable desire, and hidden identities. International humanitarian law forbids deliberate harm to civilians and other persons not taking part in hostilities at the time. Customary international humanitarian law prohibits rape and other forms of sexual violence. Common Article 3 prohibits the infliction of “violence to life and person,” including “cruel treatment and torture,” as well as “outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment” on anyone not participating in the conflict. [205] Sexual Violence as a War Crime We start from the premise that everyone has a gender identity. Most people identify as either female or male, though some may identify as both or neither. If someone is labeled “female” at birth but identifies as a man he is a transgender man (or transman). If someone is labeled “male” at birth but identifies as a woman she is a transgender woman (or transwoman). They may or may not take steps to physically alter their bodies, such as undergoing hormone replacement therapy (HRT) or sex reassignment surgery (SRS). The term “ cisgender” (non-transgender) is used for someone who identifies with the same gender, male or female, as the sex they were assigned at birth.