Iraqi LGBT activist accuses US of doing little to stop six years of militia killings of gay Iraqis

Ali Hili, of London-based Iraqi LGBT, revealed to Michael Signorile both concern and anger about the lack of U.S. response to reports of a rise in killings of gay men as well as young men perceived to be gay. He said the so-called "Emo killings" are part of a larger pattern of killing and violence carried out by Islamic militias against gay men for the past six years.

“It’s the miltias with the support of the Iraqi government,” he said. “The goverment has declared war on sexual minorities. It’s worse than [Saudi Arabia]. They are trying to rally the streets of Baghdad. Yesterday and the last six or seven days -- we have videos and films of those patrols -- with a megaphone they’re saying, 'If anyone who has any information about anyone who is a pervert, an infidel, part of the homosexual network, you have to declare it or you face consequences.' Anyone who harbors anyone who is, according to them, an illegal citizen, will face consequences.”

     Hili accused the U.S. government of hypocrisy in light of Hillary Clinton’s speech in Geneva last year condemning antigay governments and threatening the possibility of the U.S. withholding foreign aid to such nations.

     “They have been looking the other way,” he said of the Obama adminstration, and urged Americans to demand action by contacting the U.S. State Department and Hillary Clinton.