RightsCon Tunis 2019

“Challenge Hate” - Countering “hate speech” against LGBTQ people in MENA is a report that presents conclusions and observations from monitoring public discourse about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people in Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia, using illustrative case studies drawn from the period 2011 to 2017. The nature of public discourse in the target countries is worrying, as narratives around sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as sexual and gender expression, are largely dominated and therefore shaped by cisgendered heterosexual men. “Hate speech” against persons on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity was observed in all five countries, reflecting and reinforcing legal, political, social, cultural and economic discrimination, which in all cases could be characterized as institutionalized and systemic. Also, Media coverage of LGBTQ people, though sparse, was almost always negative, employing derogatory or inaccurate language to describe LGBTQ people. Although online spaces have afforded LGBTQ people degrees of anonymity allowing them to access and share information and form relationships in ways that were previously impossible, these spaces also carry significant discrimination and violence against LGBTQ people, recorded and shared online, creating public outrage supportive of LGBTQ people.