Merseyside LGBTQ+ fans have spoken out after a UK activist claims he was "arrested" in the Middle East.
LGBTQ+ campaigner Peter Tatchell claims he was arrested for protesting in Qatar, just weeks before the Fifa World Cup begins in the Arab country. The 70-year-old campaigner was supposedly stopped by five police officers, who folded up his placard which read “Qatar arrests, jails & subjects LGBTs to ‘conversion’ #QatarAntiGay,” after around an hour of protesting, on Tuesday, October 25.
Pliny Soocoormanee, the executive office of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, a human rights organisation, said the campaigner had been " seized by the Qatari security services while demonstrating in Doha against one of the most homophobic regimes on Earth". The Qatari government said authorities asked someone to move but claims of an arrest were "completely false".
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Mr Tatchell has now been "freed" after a "challenging, nerve-wracking two days" and returned home, but is said to have been initially "arrested" near Qatar’s national museum while staging “the first ever public LGBTQ+ protest in any Gulf state". The campaigner was holding a placard supporting Qatari LGBT+ people who can face jail, ‘honour’ killing and forced conversion practices. The director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, a human rights organisation, also staged a similar protest before the World Cup in Russia in 2018.
Kop Outs and Rainbow Toffees, Liverpool and Everton FC’s LGBTQ+ supporter groups respectively, have spoken with the ECHO about their concerns regarding the challenges LGBTQ+ football fans, including Mr Tatchell, will face in under a month in the conservative country.
Rainbow Toffee's events manager, Paul Hession, told the ECHO : “We’ve just heard the news about Peter Tatchell. We sincerely hope he’s ok. I first met Peter at Blackpool Pride a few years ago then again more recently at a protest in London at a ‘football for everyone’ protest.
“Peter is an incredible human being, an inspiration to many, especially the LGBTQ+ community. He’s visible and helps people feel confident and represented. Some people may say ‘he knows the risks, so shouldn’t go out there’, my reply to those people would be ‘If it wasn’t for people like Peter being so brave and standing up for our human rights then we’d get nowhere in the fight for equality.’ Get home safe Peter, our thoughts and prayers are with you at this time.”
With the World Cup taking place in Qatar in three weeks time, all eyes have been on the host nation and its laws regarding homosexuality. Homosexuality is currently illegal in the country and is punishable with a jail sentence of up to seven years. The country can punish Muslim men with the death penalty for engaging in same-sex activity, however, there has been no record of this to date.
Whereas the country’s laws regarding transgender people are unclear and rarely addressed. Having said that, Nassar al-Khater, the chief executive of the FIFA 2022 World Cup in Qatar, answered a press conference question about transgender fans who wished to visit the country during the tournament and assured all fans, of any gender, sexual orientation, religion, race would be "welcomed”.
Despite that reassurance, Paul Amann, founder of Kop Outs, still isn’t convinced especially after the news of Mr Tatchell’s "arrest". He told the ECHO : “Our thoughts are with Peter Tatchell following his arrest for doing nothing other than highlighting through peaceful protest the continuing persecution of LGBT+ people. Kop Outs raised these issues with the Qatari authorities in 2019, we received assurances that they would ensure inclusion and respect human rights. Qatar has failed to do so and has quite rightly been called out by Peter. We are pleased he has now been freed.”
Paul Amann visited Qatar with his husband in 2019 to experience first-hand what it was like for the LGBTQ+ community in the country. Recognising it is too late to move the tournament, Paul did, however, emphasise the need for people to continue to push for equality within sport.
He added: “They should certainly have a human rights aspect to future awarding, they must press the Qataris to further improve worker's rights beyond just the World Cup sites, they must drop their homophobic laws, and they must improve freedom of expression.
“It leaves me gutted that the sport I love is in a place where they have the death penalty for LGBT+ people, even if never used yet, that the lives of migrant workers are seen as expendable, and that freedom of expression is suppressed. Fans, players, football bodies, media pundits and sponsors must all press the Qataris to change now.”
England boss Gareth Southgate has previously said it was “horrible” and “a great shame” that some sections of England’s fanbase won’t feel comfortable enough to travel to Qatar in November. The 52-year-old Three Lions manager urged organisers to prove to fans that everyone would be welcome in the country regardless of sexual orientation.
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