Lebanese views about homosexuality and sexual identities

A study published recently by the Arab Institute for Freedoms and Equality on societal attitudes regarding gender issues and identities, reflected a lack of awareness among the Lebanese with respect to understanding gender and sexual issues and related gender rights. Entitled ‘As long as they stay away from me’, the survey revealed that a significant portion of respondents were against the use of violence, punitive measures or imprisonment of homosexuals and transsexuals. It showed that 64.4% of those interviewed  rejected the integration of same sex persons in society; 66.3% maintained they were a source of social threat and 82.2% said they  jeopardize the traditional family institution. The study pointed out that while around 72% of respondents described homosexuality as a mental disorder and 79% said it reflected a hormonal disease,  61.7% were opposed to providing any form of protection against discrimination to those persons. Regarding transsexuals, the survey indicated that nearly 97.5% of respondents appeared to be tolerable and ready to help trans-sex individuals as opposed to homosexuals.

The above study also showed that discrimination against homosexuality is not confined to individuals, but is a public attitude and practices supported by prejudiced legislations, namely Article 534 of the Penal Code. The latter states that any intercourse "against nature" is punishable with imprisonment from one month to one year and a fine ranging between LBP 200 thousand and a LBP one million. According to above survey, nearly 50% of respondents agreed to the terms of punishment against 40% who opposed, and 10% were undecided. (Al Akhbar, January 5, 2016)