• SuddenDownpour@sh.itjust.works
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    6 months ago

    These kinds of “morality” laws always have a built-in slippery slope that entrenches police and judicial corruption, see here:

    the bill would also impose a minimum seven-year prison sentence for “promoting homosexuality,” which is undefined in the bill (…) While consensual gay sex is not explicitly outlawed under current law in Iraq, vague “morality” clauses in the country’s penal code are routinely used to target LGBTQ+ people (…) who said it was necessary to “preserve the entity of the Iraqi society from deviation and calls for ‘paraphilia’ [abnormal sexual impulses] that have invaded the world.”

    First they speak of homosexuality, half an hour later they’re speaking about deviant behavior and paraphilias. What does count as any of those though? Practicing anal or oral sex? Having pornographic material? Wearing jeans as a woman, or letting your hair slightly long as a man? The vagueness is the purpose: by declaring a not very well defined enemy, people in positions of relative power (a policeman, a judge, a local governor) are capable of promoting witch-hunts about anyone who makes a faux pas.

    Ruining the lives of 5-10% of your society’s population is bad enough, but the main purpose of these moves is promoting conformity and entrenching corruption as a means of exerting political power.