How the Beirut blast and financial crisis has affected Lebanon’s LGBTQ+ community
euronews.comWorld Bank. Around three-quarters of its population has been pulled into poverty, and tens of thousands of people have left the country.
And the Lebanese pound has lost more than 90 percent of its value compared to the US dollar since 2019.It’s in this environment that the number of violations against the rights of Lebanon’s LGBTQ+ community, including death threats and physical and domestic violence, have escalated.In 2019, Helem recorded 522 abuse cases.
In 2020, that number jumped to 2,161.And in 2021, the organisation recorded 4,007 incidents.Of the people who went to Helem for help, seeking free legal counselling and mental health support, around 60 percent were Syrian nationals.According to Zeidan, one of the reasons the blast had a devastating impact on the LGBTQ+ community was because pockets of the population lived around the Beirut port, where the explosion originated.“Areas of Beirut adjacent to the port are notoriously well known for being LGBTQ+ friendly areas of the city,” says Zeidan.
