If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know that a number of nations across the globe still have laws in place that make it illegal to be queer*.
One of those nations is Brunei, whose anti-gay and adultery law goes into effect this week. According to CNN, anyone found guilty of adultery, or loving or having sex with someone of the same gender, will be stoned to death under Sharia law.
The strict new laws were announced by the Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, in 2014, and have been rolled out gradually in the small nation on the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia.
The Sultan “does not expect other people to accept and agree with it, but that it would suffice if they just respect the nation in the same way that it also respects them,” according to the government website.
Nope.
No respect for you or your backwards, barbaric laws, and Elton John and George Clooney agree with me. Here’s The Guardian:
Elton John has joined George Clooney in calling for a boycott of nine Brunei-owned hotels over the sultanate’s new death penalty laws for gay sex and adultery.
“I commend my friend, George Clooney, for taking a stand against the anti-gay discrimination and bigotry taking place in the nation of Brunei – a place where gay people are brutalised, or worse – by boycotting the sultan’s hotels,” the singer wrote on his Twitter page late on Saturday.
The 72-year-old, a veteran gay rights campaigner, said his “heart went out” to staff at the hotels, but that “we must send a message, however we can, that such treatment is unacceptable”.
Clooney mentioned nine hotels in the US, Britain, France and Italy, including London’s exclusive Dorchester and the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles.
Clooney called for the boycott earlier this week, saying: “Every single time we stay at or take meetings at or dine at any of these nine hotels, we are putting money directly into the pockets of men who choose to stone and whip to death their own citizens for being gay or accused of adultery.”
Homosexuality is already illegal in the sultanate, but will become a capital offence this week.
* ‘queer’ is used here as an umbrella term to describe anyone under the LGBTQ spectrum.
