67 Men in Saudi Arabia Face Whipping For Dressing In Drag

Over the weekend, comes news that 67 men in the Kingdom of Saudi arabia have been charged with cross-dressing and display of homosexuality. The Filipino men were attending a party and were discovered by Saudi authorities, officials there said.

OK, whenever we here in the United States think we have difficulties as gays, lesbians, bisexuals, or transgenders, we need only to look to other places around the world, which make our own problems look trivial in comparison. The human rights abuses (thinly disgused as "Laws of the State") in the Kingdom and countries like the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, and Burundi, are horrific. Gays are executed, beaten, whipped, sentenced to hard labor, or subjected to mob vigilantism in these and quite a few other countries where the LGBT community is subjugated, persecuted and vilified, just for being who they are.

There is precious little outcry from the American LGBT community on this, even as we rally for equal rights and same-sex marriage here at home. Too often we do not see (or avert our eyes to) the "legal" persecutions of LGBTs all over the world. Even as we mark the 40th anniversary of New York City's Stonewall Rebellion, we need to think about the millions of our brothers and sisters who cannot "rebel" against their persecutors, let alone have the freedom to "come out of the closet". During this month when we show our Pride as LGBT's, let's also take a moment to reflect on ways we can address the awful plight of those overseas who cannot do so. The world is watching.