A bizarrely homoerotic video of muscled newly-appointed police officers in Egypt during their graduation ceremony parade has gone viral.
Over 1500 of the Egyptian police’s new recruits took part in the procession at their academy outside Cairo last week. The event was reportedly broadcast on a local TV and livestreamed.
In the video, the shirtless men stand at attention on the roofs of cars, tanks and boats. As well as firing weapons, the men also did pull-ups together performed acrobatic stunts and smashed concrete blocks on each other during the event.
The men are seen kneeling as they pass by Egypt’s anti-LGBTIQ resident Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, a former army general.
Later, clips of the parade made it onto social media where many pointed out the obvious.
George Takei said what we’re all thinking when he shared the clip with his millions of Twitter followers.
“For a terrifyingly homophobic and dangerously anti-LGBT government in Egypt, this screams pretty gay,” he wrote.
Another quipped, “And we’re sure this isn’t Cairo’s pride parade?”
For a terrifyingly homophobic and dangerously anti-LGBT government in Egypt, this screams pretty gay. https://t.co/At216ndhtF
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) October 18, 2020
🌇 #مشاريع_مصر🇪🇬|
من حفل تخرج دفعة جديدة من أكاديمية الشرطة المصرية عام 2020
Graduation ceremony for the new police officers from the Egyptian Police Academy in 2020 pic.twitter.com/3oPkrsYRDA— مشاريع مصر Egypt (@EgyProjects) October 15, 2020
Is anyone checking up on Sisi’s Egypt pic.twitter.com/iMs6HK7qMc
— bassem (@saadbassem) October 17, 2020
Is inflation so bad that the military can’t afford clothes any longer?
— Shahzad Khan, PhD (@skhanyz) October 18, 2020
Egypt police ‘arresting and torturing’ LGBTIQ people
Egypt has an appalling human rights record and queer people suffer horrific persecution under vague “debauchery” laws.
Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Egyptian police officers were using fake social media profiles to target queer people.
The police then entrap, arrest, detain and torture them.
Victims told HRW the security forces physically and verbally abused and tortured them in prison. Some suffered rapes and forced anal exams.
Human rights groups said the country’s horrific anti-LGBTIQ crackdown ramped up after a Cairo rock concert in 2017.
A group of young people waved rainbow flags, sparking dozens of arrests and interrogations.
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