Gay bloggers and gay newspapers have been aggressively questioning the use of donated funds by an activist group called Iraqi lgbt, an unregistered charity that works to protect Iraqi gays from homophobic violence. One blogger claims Iraqi lgbt has been stonewalling him, and the SF Bay Times picked up the story:
Reading Petrelis’s hectoring email string, posted on his blog, one first feels some sympathy for the beleaguered activist at the receiving end of Michael’s incessant demands for details. In the end, however, one starts to wonder why the hell [Chairman] Hili can’t get it together to send even a minimal report…
Iraqi lgbt has now produced an account of its spending here. The group’s statement says its financing of efforts to bring refugees to safety are very sensitive, involve stealth to avoid authorities, and sometimes bribery when authorities can’t be avoided. Recent efforts at outside oversight backfired, putting gay refugees at risk.
“Heartland Alliance [as grant provider] however insisted that our group should meet up with the Lebanese LGBT group, Helem, in November 2008, at that same time that some prominent members of Heartland Alliance visited Syria.”
“The result was disastrous for our group, Iraqi LGBT. Some of our members were arrested by Syrian police in Damascas. With the help of a local lawyer, Iraqi LGBT managed to get these people released. However one of them was later to be deported back to Iraq.”
Last year the group’s coordinator of safehouses in Iraq was murdered in a Baghdad barber shop when militiamen “burst in and sprayed his body with bullets at point blank range.”
