LGBTQ+ groups hold World Cup concerns after Qatar consider using spies to arrest gay fans – The Mirror

LGBTQ+ supporters remain unconvinced that they will be safe if they travel to Qatar for the World Cup amid reports the country had been set to deploy spies to arrest gay fans.

Qatar is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for members of the LGBTQ+ community. Same-sex relationships are outlawed in the Middle Eastern Emirate, with homosexuality even punishable by death under Qatari law.

Mirror Football revealed earlier this week that LGBTQ+ Qataris are being hunted, arrested, beaten and forced into conversion therapy by security forces. World Cup organisers have frequently claimed LGBTQ+ fans will be safe if they travel to the tournament, though few believe those assurances.

According to the Daily Mail, gay couples will be able to openly hold hands, cuddle and kiss during the World Cup. Public displays of affection are outlawed in Qatar, but the authorities have reportedly decided to relax laws.

These laws have only been relaxed though after FIFA held secret meetings with the Qatari government. It is said that the governing body was able to persuade the interior ministry to stop its security forces from arresting LGBTQ+ supporters during the World Cup.

The Qatari authorities had been set to deploy ‘undercover spies’ to mingle with groups of fans and arrest ‘offenders’, according to The Mail’s report. Despite the temporary measures, advice from the Foreign Office remains ‘homosexuality is illegal in Qatar’.

There has been no public confirmation by the Qatari government that they will relax laws that persecute LGBTQ+ people. And while it appears that LGBTQ+ supporters might be safe, there is huge concern that members of the community who are from Qatar will continue to be persecuted.

“There’s a double standard that the Qatari authorities are repeatedly referring to when it comes to discrimination of outsiders who are LGBT and those who are inside the country,” Rasha Younes, of Human Rights Watch, told Mirror Football.

“Suggestions that Qatar should make an exception for outsiders is an explicit reminder that Qatari authorities do not believe that LGBT people who are residents of the country exist and deserve basic rights.

“The Qatari authorities have never said that LGBT people who are residents of the country are going to be protected or are safe from discrimination.”

England LGBT+ fans group Three Lions Pride have already confirmed they will not be attending the World Cup. The group’s co-founder Di Cunningham said they believed they would be putting members at risk of “systematic, institutional and potentially vigilante abuse” if they encourage members to travel to Qatar.

“Three Lions Pride will not be travelling to this World Cup, mainly because we understand from our counterparts in Qatar that our presence would render them vulnerable to systematic, institutional and potentially vigilante abuse,” Cunningham said.

“We’re hearing what seems to be a kind of robotic insistence that all will be well, that we’ll be safe, that we will be welcomed, but it’s not backed by evidence or documented plans. There’s no sign, as there was in Russia (at the 2018 World Cup), of any kind of appetite to relax or review the toxic environment there is for LGBTQ+ and other minority groups.

“It’s wrong on so many levels. It was wrong when the decision was made, and it’s still very, very wrong. There’s not been any progress and just vocal reassurance from FIFA and from the Supreme Committee… it’s just not enough.”

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