via Mahmoud Ghazayel

The picture above was taken in Lebanon back in 2006, however it’s not a gay parade but an anti-government demonstration led by the opposition back then. Needless to say, the parties who were organizing this demonstration (and those against them for that sake) probably had no clue what these colors stood for and would have never considered demonstrating in favor of same sex marriages.

In fact, we still live in a country where people from different religions cannot marry that easily, where civil marriage is almost considered a crime, where anal exams are used to charge men with homosexuality, where women are still being abused and tortured by their husbands, where homosexuality is portrayed as being a trend or an illness and where you are mistaken for a devil worshiper (whatever that means) for holding Friday the 13th parties.

We are still a long way from achieving equality in Lebanon but we will get there eventually as progression is inevitable. We need more awareness campaigns and further action to change our obsolete laws and achieve equality for women and for the LGBT community among other things. I’m sharing once again a Lebanese TV campaign against homophobia, probably the first of its kind in the Arab World.

#Lovewins always.

[YouTube]

The White House is illuminated in rainbow colors after today’s historic Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage in Washington – via Newsweek