In interviews with ABC News, half a dozen LGBT people in Egypt described feeling trapped and terrified that they, too, could end up imprisoned and tortured by the security services. For one year-old man from Cairo, taking refuge in the desert seemed safest. The man, who teaches young adults about gender studies, identifies as pansexual, where one does not prefer one specific gender or orientation over another.
Like others interviewed by ABC News, he requested anonymity, worried he could be detained for speaking out. He said his boyfriend attended a Sept. Images of the flags went viral on social media in Egypt, prompting anti-LGBT hysteria in Egyptian mass media and, according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights , a human rights group, the arrests of at least 75 people.
Human rights groups have issued harsh condemnations. He spends his time binge watching television, avoiding exercise and friends. Last week, just over an hour down the road from his desert sanctuary, Egypt hosted the World Youth Forum, an international conference in the resort city of Sharm El Sheikh that, according to its website , aimed to promote "peace, prosperity, harmony and progress. But at the guesthouse, the pansexual Egyptian felt paralyzed and persecuted -- and regretful.
He had spent time in Europe and even applied for asylum there earlier this year, ultimately growing homesick and unhappy with the process, coming back to his homeland. People are cheering for the arrests of the gays. Analysts told ABC News the current crackdown comes in the context of increased oppression against a variety of minority, political and religious groups in Egypt since , when the military took control of the government.
LGBT people have been targeted in particular, not only during the past several years, but for decades. The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a local human rights group, said at least people who were LGBT, or perceived to be, were arrested between and Human rights activists have warned of police officers using gay dating apps to entrap users, luring them to meetings only to arrest them.
