LONDON – The US military’s use of homosexuality to humiliate Iraqi prisoners has been condemned as “homophobic sadism” by the gay rights group OutRage! It says the officially sanctioned culture of homophobia in the US armed forces is directly to blame.

"By associating homosexuality with oppression and torture, the US military is not only displaying its institutional homophobia", says Brett Lock of OutRage, "but also stirring up homophobic hatred throughout the Middle East.

"Obviously we condemn all forms of torture and ritual humiliation of prisoners in whatever form they take," says Lock, “but the fact is that many Arab and Muslim people now associate homosexuality with torture and oppression. This is destroying all hope of advancing lesbian and gay human rights in the Middle East, and is likely to lead to intensified repression of queers in the region.

According to media reports, US military personnel have forced Iraqi prisoners to masturbate or pose in positions feigning "homosexual acts" and oral sex. In some photographs, US personnel can be seen pointing and laughing as the Iraqi prisoners are forced to act like "homosexuals". Other reports allege that Iraqi prisoners have been raped and ‘sodomised’ with light bulbs, broomsticks and other objects.

Although the US military authorities deny any official knowledge or endorsement of these actions, it is clear that homophobia is very much a part of US military culture. During the post-9/11 bombing of Afghanistan, the military was embarrassed when a journalist photographed navy personal scribbling "high jack this fags" (sic) onto bombs being loaded onto aircraft. Clearly there is a culture of labelling "the enemy" as homosexuals, a view reinforced by the ban on lesbian and gay people serving openly in the US military.

“Already the associations between homosexuality and sadism are being made. A week ago, protesters in Egypt laid the blame on ‘homosexual American executioners’,” says Lock.

"The tragic irony, he adds "is that the homophobia that drives the American actions is now leading to gays - who can't even serve in the military openly - being blamed for this abuse. The US military, consciously or unconsciously, seems to be deliberately promoting a link between homosexuality and sadistic torture. Not only does it obviously
serve a wider antigay political agenda in America, but it will make it almost impossible to talk sensibly about sexual orientation in Iraq and other Muslim countries in the future. These are countries where lesbians and gays face the most brutal repression and where gay rights campaigning is most urgently needed."

“OutRage! is deeply concerned that both sides in the conflict use homosexuality to debase and dehumanise the other side, linking it with torture, humiliation and shame - with the US military playing it out in the most graphic and debased way. The backlash, the group fears, will ultimately be against the already-persecuted and defenceless lesbian and gay people in the region who, owing to the US military's actions, may ultimately be beyond help” he says.