Lebanese protest against homosexuality tests

Activists from the civil society raised their voice from outside the Ministry of Justice to demand the abolition of legal articles allowing the adoption of homosexuality and virginity tests, noting that these practices go back to the middle ages and are incompatible with human rights as they constitute a violation of the “sanctity of each person”.          

The protesters described the homosexuality and virginity tests as “tests of shame”, to be considered as rape following the request of the Public Prosecution.            

The Syndicate of Doctors and Physicians and the medical body strongly supported this campaign against the aforementioned tests. The head of the Doctors' Syndicate Charaf Abou Charaf said that these tests are a gross violation of the rights of the persons exposed to such tests without their consent.           

This rally followed a July 28 police raid on a gay venue in a working class district of Beirut when 36 men were taken into custody and forced to undergo the examinations, reportedly to determine their sexual orientation.

For more details about the July 28 police raid, please click here.

For the full LBCI report, please watch the video above