‘Homosexuality requires treatment, not beatings’

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I was in ‘London in the sixties’, enjoying visiting stores to buy ceramic pieces and household utensils, because they were distinguished by their brands, and their prices were cheap.

That shop was selling factory products that had manufacturing defects that were not easily noticeable and instead of destroying them they were sold at a cheap price.

Car factories also, from time to time, withdraw certain models after discovering manufacturing defects in them.

In the same context, some are born with obvious birth defects, or they are not easily noticed, and they may be sexual defects but they are covered up.

Therefore it is funny, or perhaps painful; to punish a person because he is one-eyed, or imprison him because he is deaf, or impose a fine on him because he does not speak, or refuse to employ him because his voice, resembles a female or vice-versa.

Nevertheless, the Kuwaiti law stipulates punishment on gender basis, noting that science and life experiences, medical and psychological have proven that a majority, if not all of those who are called homosexuals are forced to act in a way that may be abnormal in the eyes of some, but it is natural for them, and most often have no choice in that, therefore it is ridiculous to punish and imprison those who do not agree with our whims and desires.

Our judgment on homosexuals is often, or perhaps always, unjust, unaware that those we believe to be homosexuals are fully compatible with their nature in which they were brought up and they do not represent a new phenomenon in the first place.

All heritage books, jurisprudence, religious texts, and history books have addressed their subject since a very long time and there was no need to dedicate an article in the Kuwaiti Penal Code to this subject.

Based on this logic, activists and human rights activists submitted the matter to the Constitutional Court, challenging the unconstitutionality of Article 198 of the Penal Code, related to criminalizing homosexuals, noting that the laws of Islamic countries have suspended the work of texts related to how to deal with slaves for their lack of consistency with the times.

Why the insistence on dealing with those who are called homosexuals in the crude manner, with the penalties inconsistent with the articles of the constitution, not to mention the aspects and medical evidence of the subject, which confirm or at least points to the possibility that this matter is the result of a gender disorder, something that religious fatwas have acknowledged and considered as a possible justification for performing gender change operations.

In anticipation of the date set for the issuance of the ruling in the constitutional challenge that is being considered by the Constitutional Court on Feb 16, challenging the unconstitutionality of Article 198 of the Penal Code, criminalizing homosexuality, in which I personally have a modest role, the Lawyers Association held a symposium to discuss the circumstances surrounding the case.

The speakers emphasized that homosexuality falls under the category of diseases that need treatment, and not among the list of crimes that require punishment, and this is what many countries realized decades ago, after it was found that 70% of cases are for persons who go through gender disorders and are victims of diseases against their will.

Lawyer Ali Al-Arian, who filed the appeal with the Constitutional Court, affirmed that Article 198 is unconstitutional, and the Constitutional Court has set its session to next Wednesday to look into the case.

The constitutional expert, Mohammad Al-Faili also stressed that the basic principle in all legislation is permissibility as long as the act in question does not cause harm to society. He described the contested law as emotional in its legislation, and legislation is not made with emotion.

Psychology professor Nayef Al-Mutawa called for a distinction between punishing a person who does something, and another who suffers from something. The World Health Organization considers homosexuality is a disease that requires treatment not punishment.

e-mail: [email protected]

By Ahmad alsarraf

This news has been read 24504 times!

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