An Open Letter to Gay Men:

Lets Talk About Syrian Refugees

There are two things that a man can do to instantly make me become infatuated with
him: the first is to have a set of rock-solid abs, and the second is to have the ability to
discuss a sensitive political topic while leaving his mind open to absorb an adversarial
perspective. Since you seem like a great catch, why dont you pull up a seat and hear me
out for a minute or two?
There is one human rights issue that is currently dominating the international political
climate, and that is the Syrian refugee crisis. If you followed our most recent
presidential election, then you are likely aware of how polarized the United States is on
this issue: President-elect Trump found himself in a media firestorm following his
comments about a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States, and former
presidential candidate Hillary Clinton proposed policy that would have increased the
number of refugees seeking asylum within the USA.
Every gay pride demonstration that I have attended during this election cycle has
featured a plethora of my fellow homosexuals waving rainbow flags and flaunting their
#ImWithHer t-shirts and buttons. There were gay rights activists wearing flower
crowns walking alongside Muslims in the Atlanta LGBT pride parade calling for peace
and equality. It was a beautiful scene, and I wish that the two communities could
peacefully coexist with each other in other areas around the globe. I also wish that we
could guarantee a diplomatic relationship between potential refugees and the LGBT
community.
However, there is a big, flamboyant elephant screaming yaaas! in the corner of the
room that needs to be addressed when we talk about accepting thousands of people
from a high-risk country that has a radically different human rights record than we do:
knowing the adverse relationship that predominately Islamic countries in the Middle
East have with homosexuals, is it safe for us to live alongside people that were socially
conditioned in a political environment that literally criminalizes and kills us?
To answer this question, we need some context. Prior to the outbreak of the Syrian civil
war, the Syrian government declared Islamic jurisprudence as one of the predominant
sources of legislative policy. And according to the CIA, 87% of the constituency of Syria
practices Islam. I know what some of you may be thinking: how does the religious

subscription of Syrians have anything to do with whether or not I should be concerned

about an influx of refugees?
Well, Islam is an ideology, and like all other ideologies, it is not immune to criticism;
bad ideas rise to the surface and become normalized whenever people are too afraid to
speak out against them. Keeping this in mind, we need to be conscious of many things:
first, in 33 of 36 countries in which those who practice Islam were polled, at least threequarters of the Muslim population reports believing that homosexuality is morally
wrong. Article 520 of the penal code of 1949 in Syria prohibits having any type of
homosexual relations; it is completely normal for those who break that law to
experience three years of imprisonment (and in the current political climate, be put to
death). In the broader scheme, a domestic terrorist attack happened just months ago in
our own backyard at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida; 49 people were savagely
murdered at the hands of an Islamic terrorist. A quick Google search will show you
article after article of gay men being thrown off of buildings and stoned to death in the
name of Islam (many of them contain graphic content, so search at your own
discretion).
Now, heres what disturbs me nearly as much as violent Islamic terrorist acts against
homosexuals: it seems that social justice advocates are quick to scold Christians for the
tiniest of transgressions (such as refusing to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple), but
whenever far more disturbing stories emerge with an Islamic assailant, many of those
same people will take it upon themselves to become public relations connoisseurs for
the religion and divorce the violent actions and hateful rhetoric from it. As an atheist, if I
juxtapose the practices of Christianity in the west and Islam in Middle Eastern countries
like Syria, it is clear to me that the former is far more tolerant and secularized. If we
want to promote equality for all people, especially our own people, then we have to be
even more resilient against Islamic intolerance.
But dont Syrian refugees undergo strict background checks that can verify whether or
not they have terrorist connections or a criminal history?
Yes and no. Yes, it is true that most refugees from Syria undergo background checks.
However, how effective they are is up for debate. First and foremost, regardless of the
results of a background check, there is no way to determine what is going on in
someones head. A background check cannot detect malicious intentions, and it is
reasonable to assume that most of the population of Syria does not have the LGBT
communities best interest at heart. In addition, Syria is currently a war-torn country; it
seems presumptuous to assume that the public records that havent been destroyed in
Syria are enough to verify that someone is not a threat to United States citizens. Because
Syrias judicial structure is embedded with Sharia Law, we know that their laws often do
not align with ours; if our judicial systems are different and we have completely
different laws, then how can we be confident that Syrian courts and government officials
have documented everything that we would constitute as a crime here?
Furthermore, there have already been instances of potential terrorists slipping through
the cracks of the vetting system. One of those involves two individuals in Kentucky who

were had connections to Al-Qadea; they were convicted for plotting to send weapons
and cash to Al-Qadea operatives.
Regardless, shouldnt it be our humanitarian obligation to help those who are in need?
We would want people to do it for us, after all.
I understand this argument. Believe me, my heart hurts for these people, and I cannot
imagine what they are going through right now. However, I do not feel comfortable
jeopardizing a fellow American citizens life in order to save someone elses. I do not
think it is cruel of me to expect the American government to protect my fellow citizens
from threats both foreign and domestic, and I expect everyone else in the United States
to value my life as much as they value the life of someone who doesnt live here.
It is also worth mentioning that we have our own people to take care of. Nearly 40,000
United States veterans are roaming the streets homeless on any given night. Over 1 in 5
people in the United States are on some sort of welfare program. We need to be
allocating our scarce resources to the people here who are struggling. Americans have
for so long spoken about how fed up we are with the amount of interventionism that we
have seen in the Middle East (prompted by both Republicans and Democrats), so I think
that is time that we finally say no to being involved in other peoples conflicts. We owe it
to ourselves and disenfranchised Americans to put ourselves first right now.
I am sure that many of the people who advocate for accepting refugees are doing so with
good intentions, and I applaud them for their good heart. There are ways that you can
help from the comfort of your own home, such as sending a donation to improve the
lives of refugees (click here to be directed to a website in which you can do just that).
However, I cannot get behind policies that put myself, my country and the gay
community at risk. Those who came before us fought for too long to achieve the level of
LGBT liberation that we see today, and I would hate to see our country regress by
forcing us alongside those who overwhelmingly do not like us, do not like our lifestyle,
and come from cultures that are often antithetical to our very livelihood.

Blake Ciccio is a 20-year-old

political columnist from
Savannah, Georgia.