This is a watershed moment in American darkness.

Sorry, I meant “journalism.”

The Washington Post has, perhaps, finally reached the nadir of the slimy depths they will willingly dredge to find some way to calumniate and malign American conservatives.

In a stunning piece of deductive reasoning, written by a Muslim WaPo reporter (and obvious scholar) who attended the American University in Beirut and still lives there, the paper boldly states that what we’ve thought of for hundreds of years as a general Muslim distaste for the alphabet soup sex lifestyle is? NOT culturally and religiously motivated.

Oh, no, no, no. How wrong we were.

This will be big news to many people.

Islamic hostility to LGBT-whatevers is entirely due to the fact that they are aping the hateful behavior of American conservatives.

For reals.

LGBTQ+ communities in the Middle East face a growing crackdown, mirroring efforts by American conservatives to restrict the rights of gay and transgender people. https://t.co/SdgBWB0emA

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 3, 2023

Give yourself a moment to recover from our collective guilt, and we’ll fisk deconstruct this further, so we can revel in feeling even guiltier.

The lad starts out his litany of American conservative-inspired trans and homophobic persecutions with the canceling of the “annual Pride parade” in Istanbul, Turkey. First of all, that’s neat – the reporter says Erdogan lets them have a parade. I didn’t know that, but considering Turkey has been the least “Muslim” centric and most determinedly secular of the Middle Eastern states since Ataturk booted the Ottomans, anything is possible.

Gosh darn if American conservatives didn’t ruin it this year, after all those uninterrupted Pride parading years.

When Turkish activists announced they would hold their annual Pride parade in Istanbul’s main square last month, authorities put the city on lockdown. Subways and highways were closed. The square was cordoned off by police.

It had all been a ruse. With police distracted, LGBTQ people agreed to meet up in other parts of the city. It was still a celebration, if a more subdued one.

“The community is basically playing whack-a-mole at this point,” said Talya Aydin, a trans woman who ran in Turkey’s parliamentary elections this year. “And the community will win every time.”

Across the Middle East, LGBTQ communities face a growing crackdown, echoing efforts by prominent American conservatives to restrict the rights of gay and transgender people and erase their influence from society.

But it kinda got me wondering how long had “their ANNUAL” actually been an “annual,” with Turkey still being a Middle Eastern state and all.

The first was held in 2003 – so, okay 20 years. But oddly enough, Mr. El Chamaa doesn’t mention anywhere in his report blaming American conservatives for pooping on this year’s Pride party that Turkey’s government – not to mention the Istanbul mayor – has been raining on this parade for the past 8 years. I mean literally raining, as in using water cannons to disperse wanna-be Pride paraders.

On Sunday 29 June 2015, Reuters reported that Turkish police used a water cannon to disperse the gay pride parade.[12] In 2016 the pride march was banned by the local government “for the safety of our citizens, first and foremost the participants’, and for public order.”[13] LGBT organizations have also not been allowed to make a press statement. The governate of Istanbul once again claimed that a gathering of LGBT would not be allowed. “Within Law No: 5442, this request has not been approved due to the terror attacks that have taken place in our country and the area; because provocative acts and events may take place when the sensitivities that have emerged in society are taken into account; and because it may cause a disruption in public order and the people’s- including the participants of the event- tranquility, security, and welfare.”.[14] Supporters of the Pride claimed this decision was religiously motivated and the event was banned because it would have take during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.[12]

In 2017, it was banned outright, as it was again in 2018 and 2019, but authorities switched to tear gas and rubber bullets to break up the party those years.

…In 2018, for the fourth consecutive year the Istanbul Governor’s Office yet again banned the LGBT Pride Parade, citing security concerns and public order, but around 1,000 people defied the ban, they were met with tear gas and rubber bullets. 11 participants were arrested.[16][17]

In 2019, the Istanbul Governor’s Office yet again banned the LGBT Pride Parade, citing security concerns and public order.[18] subsequently, opposition Member of the Grand National Assembly Sezgin Tanrıkulu of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) lodged a parliamentary question to the Vice President of Turkey Fuat Oktay asking why the deputy governor of Istanbul had banned Istanbul Pride. He also asked how many LGBT members had been killed in the last 17 years, the time the ruling party Justice and Development Party (AKP) ruled the city, due to provocative hate speech, and raised concerns over discrimination against the LGBT community.[19][20] On 29 June, hundreds of people defied the ban, they were met with tear gas, shields, pepper gas and plastic bullets from the Police.[4][21]

During COVID they partied online, but in 2021 and 2022, hello – blockades, tear gas and they shut down public transportation to the square.

So…hmm. I’m not sure where “American conservatives” come into blame for ruining this year’s party, when EVERY PARTY FOR ALMOST A DECADE has been a rubber bullet bust? But I do know one thing.

When the Pride parade started being banned in 2015, Turks had a new president. His name is Tayyip Erdogan, he IS a Muslim, and has never wavered from his stated goal of bringing Turkey back into the Caliphate. Erdogan has been trying to claw those secular reforms back from Day 1.

What a load of horse hummus in the first four paragraphs.

The Turkey argle-bargle continues for a bit, all the while pretending Erdogan just this second turned into a harsh American conservative anti-LGBTwhatever crusader because of a tight election. And only now has he arrested gay people at Pride events – when even the simple Wiki link has arrests in the hundreds for the various Pride parades alone.

The fantasy continues when El Chamaa moves along to include Lebanon, and seems baffled that the head of Hezbollah (!?!) rants publicly against rainbow flags and LGBTQ agendas. Does he need a pie chart to keep his bad guys straight?

…In Lebanon as well, LGBTQ issues have been seized on by political heavyweights. Hasan Nasrallah, the leader of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia — the country’s most powerful political and military force — claimed in a televised speech in March that the United States was spearheading a campaign to change curriculums around the world to “promote a culture of homosexuality in schools and universities.”

Last month, he went further, lashing out against cartoons that promote acceptance of LGBTQ people and telling viewers that “sodomy” should be punished by death. He warned about “children’s books promoting this deviant culture” and called on the Lebanese Education Ministry to intervene.

He also urged his followers to boycott businesses that carry Pride flags, which led to a flurry of online attacks against an LGBTQ-friendly cafe in Beirut. “Sexual Deviance” was a trending topic on Twitter.

Let me do that #mathz for you, you fricking moron:

Hasan Nasrallah + Hezbollah + IRAN ISLAMIC EXTREMIST = GAYS OFF ROOFTOPS or ropes around their necks

It has EVER AND ALWAYS been so. The scummy turbaned terrorist is also not remotely influenced by American conservatives.

There’s also kind of a glaring omission for a screaming liberal talking about the Middle East in grievance tones. Why didn’t EL Chamaa whine about American conservatives in Palesti…OH.

[insert eyeroll]

I thought the American University was a decent school, too. Shows what I know.

Holy CRAP – this is one of the most unsat, pitiful, poorly executed efforts in projection I believe I’ve ever seen. Bad enough it falls aprt on its face, but if you can get over the giggles or disgusted retching long enough to dig into his BS and realize what he’s left out – HOLY CRAP.

US conservatives: maybe children shouldn’t take puberty blockers and hormone therapy

Islamists: gay people should be stoned to death

Washington Post: the similarities are striking https://t.co/tZKdPfKgvv

— Logan Dobson (@LoganDobson) August 3, 2023

If this is what the WaPo sees fit to publish, well – darkness, indeed.

Just turn the frickin’ lights OUT, you clowns.