Gay Iraqis Set to Take Part in UK Pride

 
GLOUCESTER, August 9, 2006  –  Three gay Iraqis are set to join the Gloucestershire Rainbow Day march through Gloucester city centre on Saturday (August 12) days after More4 Television News and the Observer reported on gays were the “new target” for death squads in Iraq.

Ali Hili, who co-ordinates Iraqi LGBT – a gay help and information group in Baghdad and London – will be joined by two other Iraqis who have fled their home country as hardline insurgent groups started targeting gay men, many of whom have been murdered on account of their sexuality.

Expected to attend are Ibba Alawi, a former employee at the British Embassy in Baghdad, and Dr. Haider Jaber who fled from Iraq two years ago who was viciously beaten and kicked because he was gay.