Lebanon’s LGBTQ+ Community In Fear After Christian Extremists Attack Bar In Beirut

A group of men reportedly affiliated with an extremist Christian group recently attacked an LGBTQ+-friendly bar in Beirut during a drag show.

“This is Satan’s place, it’s promoting homosexuality on the land of the Lord,” the assailants shouted at patrons in the Om Bar, in the nightlife neighborhood of Mar Mikhael. Video footage shows men yelling, “We have warned you 100 times, this is forbidden. This is only the beginning.” The attackers reportedly smashed up furniture and there were some minor injuries to patrons.

According to ‘The Media Line’, the attackers were said to be affiliated with the far-right Christian group Jnoud al-Rab, or “Soldiers of God.”

Although most patrons were physically unharmed, the attack ratcheted up fear in Beirut’s LGBTQ+ community.

The attack follows a month and a half of “hate campaigns” and “incitement” by Lebanese politicians and religious leaders against the LGBTQ+ community, Sahar Mandour, Amnesty International’s Lebanon researcher, told The Media Line.

Image Credit: Canva

Lebanon’s culture minister tried to ban the Barbie movie over the summer on the grounds that it “contradicts morals and values,” and asked the media to use the term “sexual perversion” to describe homosexuality. The country’s education minister banned a board game in schools because it depicts a rainbow. Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in July that Islamic law requires that every homosexual “should be killed.”

Mandour said the attack on the Om Bar marks “a turning point away from discursive and hidden violence” towards overt assault in Lebanon.

Until now, he said, “homophobia was contained within the discursive space,” but the attackers had now acted to reclaim power and authority, and to define what “an area should host, what space should look like, and what a person should be.”

Mandour said that this is “a real danger.”

Lebanon was once considered a haven for LGBTQ+ people, especially compared to the rest of the region.

However, in recent years, the community has encountered increasing harassment. After the Om Bar incident, LGBTQ+ community members responded with solidarity and by highlighting the country’s worsening conditions.

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