An appeal from Pakistan

The following is by a reader from Pakistan who contacted us desperate for help.

This post is offered for republication under a Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons license.

Please credit LGBT Asylum News and link to http://www.medhikazemi.com

Please contact us if you would like to help Adnan (not his real name). You can also contact Adnan if you would like him to write as a correspondent from Pakistan.

You can read more about LGBT in Pakistan at Wikipedia.

An appeal from Pakistan

First of all I want to thank LGBT Asylum News for giving me a chance to write about myself and the situation in Pakistan. My country has been in the news for quite some time and for all the bad reasons. Thanks to our government’s support of Taliban and military extremists, they are taking control of one area after another.

I live in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan and the so-called most ‘liberal’ city in this country. It has never been easy for LGBT community to even open up here let alone fight for their rights. Pakistan and India share a clause – Article 377 that was enacted by the British in 1861 – under this clause, homosexuality is punishable under law.

The clause, however, has hardly been implemented and police use it as an easy threat to extort money from gays. Despite this clause, homosexuality thrives in Pakistan. Man-on-Man sex is common but people don’t accept that they are gay. The segregation of gender is considered the reason behind this phenomenon where old men lust after young hairless smoothies.

There is also a very tiny and secluded real gay society but that is confined to the filthy rich and powerful class (Pakistan has huge class differences and a tiny segment has amassed massive wealth due to corruption and smuggling, among other things). They just socialize with each other and do nothing for the gay rights. Most of them are married as well and cheat their wives regularly.

The biggest problem is faced by guys who are from lower middle classes, somewhat educated and at the mercy of society and Islamic fanatics. When I try to open about my sexuality and live a life like gays in west live, I face the danger of death. I want to marry a guy, adopt children and lead a life as a good citizen. If I dare speak about my sexuality, Taliban would kill me.

My family and neighbors have suspicions about me as my flame burns quite high. I try to suppress that by growing beard and act manly but I fail miserably. I am feeling totally lost here and even have thought about committing suicide.

I want to get out of this mess as soon as possible as otherwise I would continue to rot in this hell. I appeal to my gay brothers to help me get out of this situation. I would appreciate any type of help.

Thanks,

Adnan