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According to the ambassador of Qatar to Germany, he was convinced that it is time for his country to abolish the death penalty for homosexuality following his speech at the human rights congress that was organized by the football federation of Germany on Monday, two months prior to the official opening of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Qatari official discussed LGBT rights during a congress
Dario Minden, the official representative of the fans transitioned to the English language when he started talking to the ambassador, Abdulla bin Mohammed bin Saud Al Thani, at the human rights congress in Frankfurt.
Minden revealed that he was attracted to men and he was born male. He said that he had sexual intercourse with men in the past and it is normal. For him, it is either being accepted as he is or avoiding being a football player.
He also expressed his opinion that the most important aspect of football is that the sport is designed for everyone, it is regardless if you are gay, lesbian, or bisexual. The game is for every boy, girl, and individual in between.
Minden also added that in order to fully eradicate the death penalty existing in the country, the government also has to eradicate all of the punishments that are related to sexual orientation and gender identity. While the existing laws of the host country might be in conflict with the true essence and core values of what football is all about.
For him, organizers and authorities of football tournaments such as the worldcup22 should exercise equality and be the first ones to execute measures that uphold gender equality. He believed that huge sporting tournaments should welcome fans and players who are members of the LGBT community.
Human rights conference
After the human rights conference, Al Thani was provided with an opportunity to reply to the inquiries; however, his comments were still unofficial.
Only the first 90 minutes of the conference of the federation were able to be broadcast for public consumption, the rest of the conference remained private. Additionally, the journalists and other members of the media were not invited to the aforementioned congress.
According to the spokesman of the federation, Steffen Simon stated that it was not the discretion of the organization to keep the huge bulk of the congress off-screen. However, they got a request from one of the attendees that they would like to talk about the aforementioned matters privately as they didn’t want to talk about that in public.
The spokesman refused to mention the identity of the attendee but he mentioned that they highly respected the request.
LGBT status in Qatar
In the past decade, the rigid society and laws of Qatar was heavily criticized by human rights activists and politicians.
According to Major General Abdulaziz Abdullah Al Ansari, an authority that presides over the security for the sporting event; LGBT flags will be confiscated from the fans during the World Cup event, with the intention to protect the fans from being assaulted due to their promotion of queer rights.
Al Ansari emphasized that LGBTQ partners would still be accepted and coud gain access in Qatar to attend the World Cup even though same-sex relationship is still illegal in the traditionalist Middle-eastern nation.
Ever since Qatar was announced as the new host country of the FIFA World Cup, the upcoming event was plagued with several controversies such as laborer rights violations, lack of football history, and acceptance of LGBT individuals.
Final thoughts
While several concerns about the safety of LGBT people that will attend the World Cup are still ongoing, the organizers of the event and the officials of Qatar reassured that once the event started, they will be welcomed in the country with an open heart but insisted that the laws regarding LGBT in Qatar remains the same.
If you are a member of LGBT community but too afraid to attend the World Cup, you can still watch the world cup 2022 livestream on the site of your choice.