Gay Life After Saddam

A brand new BBC Radio 5 documentary -- Gay Life After Saddam -- makes the almost unbelievable statement that life was better for Iraqi LGBTQ folk under the dictatorship than under the current regime. For anyone not following, reports of harassment, attacks (by police, sometimes), and brutal tortures/atrocities have been reported under the new government, as far as supergluing gay men's anuses shut and then feeding them laxatives to induce diarrhea.

Yea, so not pleasant. A single statement stood out to me in the BBC coverage:

What is clear however is that gay people in Iraq have not been crushed.

And, so, there is hope.

With the international attention on the radio program, Radio 5 will be rebroadcasting the documentary (60 minutes) on July 12th, although the website seems to indicate that it is available other times. Just not right now, when I want to listen to it.