LEBANON - LGBT Suffer Discrimination
A new study by the nonprofit organization Legal Action Worldwide shows that members of the LGBT community are regularly subjected to “systemic discrimination, stigma, and abuse at home and across public settings, ranging from housing, health care, and employment, to education, hospitality, and shops.” Despite Lebanon being portrayed as a haven for queer people in the Middle East, Lebanese still must deal with homophobia and transphobia in their daily lives.
This ban came after religious leaders, especially Sunni, Shia, and Druze representatives, condemned celebrations organized by the LGBT community during Pride Month. “Freedom of expression cannot be invoked in this case, since it is a violation of the habits and traditions of our society, contrary to the principles of monotheistic religions,” said Ministry of Interior Bassam Mawlawi at the time, allowing security forces to arrest anyone involved in LGBT events.
For the past three years, Lebanon has been facing one of the worst economic crises in the last 150 years, according to the World Bank. “Queer people are being used by the state to move attention away from the socioeconomic problems the whole of the population is facing,” said Tarek Zeidan.
-themedialine.org, 26 November 2022
Arno's Commentary
Lebanon used to be called the Switzerland of the Middle East. The country is rich in ancient history, popular with global tourists, and known for liberal values fitting the European culture. But now, it has experience unprecedented crises as their government cannot fully function without the support of Hezbollah. According to Wikipedia, the Arab League plus 23 other nations “have listed the entire organization Hezbollah as a terrorist group.”
The once rich country’s population is presently listed as 5.2 million, of which 68% are Muslim. It is now close to poverty, with a listed per capita GDP of only $11,600.
While most progressive and industrialized nations have recognized the LGBT movement as legitimate, Muslim countries in general do not.
Here we must direct our attention to God’s Word. Romans 1:27 documents: “And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.” While we read in the Old Testament about the great wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah, in the book of Jude in the New Testament, it says: “Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire” (v. 7).
Do we have signs of the end times? Yes. One particular activity is recorded in Genesis 19:9: “And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door.” The sodomites took over political authority in enforcing their own laws based on a “reprobate mind,” as Romans 1:28 records.
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
