Courtesty of Pam's House Blend:

"In the past three months, more than 30 gays have been executed in Baghdad. The bodies have been found tortured, mutilated - sometimes with signs of rape," said Mustafa Salim, spokesman for the Rainbow for Life Organisation (RLO), a Baghdad-based gay rights NGO.

"Notes were found near some of the bodies with messages saying that this is going to be the fate for any Muslim who denies the Islamic religion," Salim added.

"The gay community continues to be subjected to systematic terror by Shia militias, especially the Mahdy Army controlled by the religious leader Muqtada al-Sadr. The government of Iraq is refusing to offer protection," he added.

In an interview, one member of the Mahdy Army, Ali Hassany, said that the militia will target Iraq's gays and lesbians. "They deserve death. Those people are an embarrassment to our society. Killing such people is a job for their families, but if they cannot do so by their own hands, we will do it," Hassany said.

Pam's blogger Radical Russ has this to add:

The difference between the Mahdi Army and the Family Research Council?  The Mahdi Army knows they can get away with it.

Anyone surprised?  On the one hand, it makes me appreciate the many freedoms I have as a queer woman living in the United States of America.  On the other hand, it makes me fear the devastation if the Chrisot-fascists come to power and turn us completely into a theocracy.  Our Christian allies can only protect us so much.

Very humbling.