Authorities in the Arab Republic of Egypt have arrested more than 150 homosexual men using the gay dating app Grindr, even as the United States claims “LGBTQ rights” are now “core” to its foreign policy.
Citing information from Human Rights Watch and their own sources, LGBTQ news outlet Pink News reports that “more than 150 people have been arrested with Egyptian police using entrapment schemes” that include fake or hijacked profiles on Grindr, provoking a public warning from the app to its Egyptian users.
Egyptian police are apparently using the app to approach homosexual men, then arresting them and beating them severely as punishment. One reported victim told HRW:
[The police] took me to the “morality ward” and kept me until 4 a.m. in a tiny room with no food or water. They took my phone and belongings. When they came back with a police report, I was surprised to see the guy I met on Grindr is one of the officers. They beat me and cursed me until I signed papers that said I was “practicing debauchery” and publicly announcing it to fulfill my “unnatural sexual desires.”
In addition to creating fake profiles to make their arrests, police in the Islamic country are also reportedly “hacking into legitimate user profiles on the app to make arrests.”
Grindr told LGBTQ media that it is “pushing international organizations and governments” to demand Egypt curtail its abuse of homosexuals.
The revelation follows the passing of a new bill passed by the parliament in Uganda, which criminalizes identifying as LGBTQ and imposes the death penalty for cases involving “aggravated homosexuality,” which CNN explains is “a broad term used in the legislation to describe sex acts committed without consent or under duress, against children, people with mental or physical disabilities, by a “serial offender,” or involving incest.”
That bill prompted Biden administration’s John Kirby to tell the press that “a core part of our foreign policy” in the United States is “LGBTQ rights.”
KIRBY: "LGBTQ+ rights are a core part of our foreign policy." pic.twitter.com/8XouKUwFhk
— Clown World ™ 🤡 (@ClownWorld_) March 21, 2023
Estimates suggest around 149,000 Egyptian immigrants currently live in the United States. More than 90% of Egyptians identify as Muslims, and a 2013 Pew survey revealed that 95% of them believe homosexuality should not be accepted by society.
Egypt made the news earlier this year when it was reported that Kevin Hart’s comedy show was canceled after the African-American was reported to have advanced unfounded afrocentric claims about black Pharaohs in ancient Egypt.