Lebanese police arrest Gay Pride organizer; events canceled

Colin Stewart is a 45-year journalism veteran living in Southern…

Lebanon’s Gay Pride Week began as scheduled on Saturday, but was shut down after organizer Hadi Damien was arrested and held overnight.

Associated Press reported:

BEIRUT — The organizer of Lebanon’s beleaguered gay pride week has been briefly detained days into the celebrations and the rest of the festival’s events cancelled.

Hadi Damien told The Associated Press Tuesday that he was held overnight over Beirut Pride week, which began Saturday, allegedly following complaints from critics.

Damien’s lawyer, Layal Saqr, said her client was interrogated over allegedly encouraging debauchery and offending public decency.

Damien was released after signing a pledge to call off the rest of the week’s events, which included a street party and poetry readings.

Saqr said the detention sent “a warning.”

Lebanon became the first Arab country to celebrate gay pride last year. Some events were also cancelled last year but no one was arrested.

Homosexuality is still punishable by law in Lebanon.

[Editor’s note: But a lower-court judge in Lebanon has blocked enforcement of that law, ruling that homosexuality is not “unnatural,” so is not covered by the law’s prohibition of sex acts “contrary to the order of nature.”]