Another day and another country has declared war on the queer community. This time it is Tajikistan, which has set up an official registry of its known gay citizens. All those listed will now be required to be tested for STIs. The country insisted this would stop sexually-transmitted diseases from being spread.

 

The government is calling its anti-gay campaign both "Operation Purge" and "Operation Morality." According to the newspaper Zakonnost, 319 gay men and 48 lesbians have already been targeted.

 

Although officially secular, and even though homosexuality was decriminalized in 1998, the predominantly Muslim country has not been a very welcome place for the queer community. 

 

“Despite the abolition of the law [against homosexuality], homophobia remains a very big problem,” Kiromidin Gulov, the head of one of Tajikistan’s only LGBT rights groups, told the BBC in 2012. “Obvious cases of discrimination, beatings, rapes, robberies.”

 

Gulov added: “Gays and lesbians do not go to the police for fear of publicity and blackmail.”

 

Officials are painting the campaign as one that is good for the LGBT community. They said gays were targeted "due to their vulnerability in society and for their safety and to prevent the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases.”

 

Chechnya has set up concentration camps for gay men. Azerbaijan is targeted homosexuals with torture and imprisonment. And Egypt is currently arresting gay men caught during midnight raids of same-sex parties.

 

We seriously need a Rainbow Rambo to head to these places and kick some homophobic ass.

 

Tajikistan authorities draw up list of gay and lesbian citizens [The Guardian]

 

'Very Scary': Tajikistan's Registry Frightens Gays, Alarms Rights Activists [Radio Free Europe]