Qatari LGBTQ activist in US requests meeting with Nancy Pelosi over death threats
EXCLUSIVE: "I received an unsolicited package to my office" says Dr Nas Mohamed, who now lives in San Francisco, which Pelosi represents
Words: Jamie Tabberer; picture: Provided/wiki
The world’s first known Qatari to speak publicly to the world’s media about being LGBTQ has called on Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the United States House of Representatives, to meet with him over safety concerns.
Dr Nas Mohamed left Qatar, where gay sex is punishable by death, in 2015. Pelosi represents the 12th congressional district, which includes San Francisco, where Nas now lives.
Nas came out publicly as LGBTQ last month in protest of Qatar hosting the 2022 World Cup in November. Although the response has been overwhelmingly positive, he says he has received death threats.
“I received an unsolicited package to my office”
“I’ll never go back to Qatar,” the 35-year-old explained in an interview with Attitude. “I was disowned by my family years ago, and to be honest, it’s the ones I’m closest to I’m afraid of the most. When you do something that dishonours your family publicly, in a very conservative, tribal community, trying to regain your honour is a gesture that people sometimes try to take.”
Nas, who is non-binary and uses he/him pronouns, added that he has been “working on connecting to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – she’s my congresswoman in San Francisco – to talk to her about this. I received my first unsolicited package to my office and of course it’s from Florida, of all places. It is a handwritten document from a Catholic person preaching to me about how to reconcile my faith with my sexuality.
“I opened it without thinking, and thought: ‘Oh my god, I need to be careful opening packages to my medical practise.’ The address is public. I do have safety concerns this year. There are a lot of people who don’t like the message I’m coming forward with and are fighting it very, very aggressively. But I’m going to speak, and I’m not going to stop. It’s wrong to remain silent on this issue.”
Nas has partnered with AllOut to start an international petition, calling on FIFA to demand decriminalisation of LGBTQ laws for visitors and also for those in Qatar.