Horror and Homophobia in Iraq
By Mubarak Dahir, AlterNet

The claim by some members of the gay and lesbian community that the invasion and occupation of Iraq is not a “gay” issue crumbled last week when photos emerged of hooded, naked Iraqi captives at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad being forced to simulate gay sex acts as a form of abuse and humiliation.

As a gay man and as a person of Arab descent, I felt a double sting from those pictures.

Looking at the blurred-out photos of hooded Iraqi prisoners being forced to perform simulations of gay oral sex on one another, I had to wonder what it was that my fellow Americans in uniform who were directing the scene found the most despicable: the fact that the men were performing gay sex, or that they were Arabs.

No one can doubt that the gay-sex photos of abuse display the deeply-seated homophobia that remains pervasive and unchecked in the United States military.