Story: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/...ref=time_world

Video: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/...ld#cnnSTCVideo

What made me particularly revolted by the story here is that when a 16 yr old boy was kidnapped for ransom, when they found out he was gay, he was raped every day for 15 days...and he is too afraid to tell anyone because then people would know he had sex with men...and who the hell knows what his family and the law officials would do.

"Militias are reportedly threatening families of men believed to be homosexual, stating that they will begin killing family members unless the men are handed over or killed by the family," it said.

"the biggest threats right now are from militia organizations, who will attack and actually sometimes kill gay men and women."


"I would rather commit suicide than allow my family to find out I am gay," Rami said.

One man said he considers gays no different from "criminals and terrorists."

Rami said he once fell in love with a man who was part of the Mehdi Army, a Shiite insurgent group loyal to the radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Their relationship eventually soured.

"One day he told me he would come over to my house and kill me in front of my family," Rami said. "I told him I would come outside and be killed in the street because I do not want my family to find out I am gay."