Lebanon MPs, civil rights activists working to get anti-LGBT law abolished

Lebanese civil rights activists have said that they are working with MPs to get an anti-LGBT+ law repealed, a rights group leader has told local media.

Civil rights groups including Proud Lebanon are collecting signatures from MPs to get Article 534 abolished, Bertho Makso, Executive Director of Proud Lebanon told NOW.

“We know our limits and we know society is not ready for anything beyond simply decriminalizing homosexuality but we have to choose our fights,” Makso said.

“So we’re currently working with multiple MPs to present a draft law to parliament very soon, in which article 534 is completely abolished.”

Article 534 especially criminalises same-sex intercourse between men and the gender expression of trans people.

It has allowed for arbitrary detentions, confiscation of possessions, non-consensual HIV tests, and intrusive anal examinations to prove whether a person has engaged in same-sex acts. 

Activists have long campaigned to have Article 534, put in place by the French mandate in the 1900s, repealed.

Makso told NOW that work on the bill began in 2018, and gathered speed during the 2019 protest movement.

Opposition MPs as well as members of the Kataeb Party and the Free Patriotic Movement have expressed support for increased LGBT+ rights in Lebanon.