Saudi Arabia

Reports say the conservative Muslim country has stopped issuing visas to transgender people.

Homosexuality is punishable by death in the ultraconservative Muslim kingdom.

MANAMA, Bahrain — A court in eastern Saudi Arabia has sentenced a gay man to three years in prison for engaging in “immoral acts” after authorities found “offensive” pictures on his phone and social media posts where he sought to meet other men for sex.

For gay men in the dozens of countries that criminalize their sex lives, social networking can be a blessing or a curse. High-tech dating apps and social media have enabled countless men to expand their circles of friends and lovers in settings that are hostile to any overt trace of homosexuality. Yet the same technology that they gratefully embrace can expose…

MEDINA, Saudi Arabia – A criminal court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a 24-year-old man to three years in jail and 450 lashes for trying to arrange a date with another man via Twitter. According to the daily Aarabic newspaper Al-Watan, the court found the unidentified man guilty of “promoting the vice and practice of homosexuality.”

As the British Prime Minister David Cameron visits Saudi Arabia on Friday, activists report plight of man arrested by the religious police who may face corporal punishment. Activists are concerned for the safety of a 30-year-old man arrested by the religious police in Saudi Arabia for using Facebook to date other men.

A Kenyan gay magazine has exposed male sex trafficking between Kenya and the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Identity magazine says that gay and bisexual Kenyans are being lured from universities with promises of jobs only to end up as sex slaves.

A Saudi Arabian diplomat is seeking political asylum in the United States because he is gay and befriended a Jewish woman, and fears for his life if he returns, NBC News reported Saturday.