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LGBTQ+ World Cup fans manage to wave Pride flag in Qatar thanks to app filter

In the middle of Qatar, where being gay is illegal, dozens of World Cup fans are raising the LGBTQ+ Pride flag up high – well, kind of.

All 1.2 million visitors expected to descend on the conservative Muslim state are, state and FIFA officials have stressed, welcome.

But LGBTQ+ fans aren’t sure about that. Campaigners and footy fans have expressed reservations about attending or even watching the World Cup, given the Gulf nation’s homophobic laws and customs.

Several fans wearing the rainbow, a symbol of LGBTQ+ inclusivity, have said they were refused entry by security staff into World Cup stadiums.

Among them was former Wales women’s captain Laura McAllister, made to take off a rainbow hat as she entered Ali Stadium in Al Rayyan last month.

To combat this, Brazillian magazine Corner Magazine has launched a Snapchat filter that uses augmented reality to transform every flag into a Pride flag.

The initiative, called Pride Nation, has seen dozens of World Cup fans raise rainbow flags up high in the middle of stadiums and fan fests.

Fernando Martinho, founder and editor at Corner Magazine, told Metro.co.uk: ‘In Qatar, it’s absolutely illegal to be LGBTQ+ and people can be punished with up to seven years in jail for it.

‘These are major human rights violations, so we need to protest, speak up and fight against it somehow.

‘FIFA and the organisation are supposedly welcoming everyone and allowing rainbow flags to be taken into stadiums, but that’s far from the truth.’

These assurances only soured, he added, after FIFA, on the eve of the World Cup, said players wearing rainbow armbands could face on-the-pitch sanctions.

The move led to England, Wales and other European teams ditching the small gesture of solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community.

‘These things are happening in literally every game, making this initiative more necessary and relevant than ever,’ Martinho added.

Sex between men is prohibited in Qatar and punishable by up to seven years in prison, according to a US State Department report, and queer Muslims can technically face the death penalty.

Human Rights Watch has said there are reports of LGBTQ+ Qataris being arbitrarily arrested and even being deported.

This means that technology is a ‘vital’ lifeline for queer Qataris to bypass anti-LGBTQ+ law, one human rights activist who works across the Middle East and North Africa told Metro.co.uk.

‘With every single criminalised queer community, navigating these laws can be very complex,’ the activist, who works for a top human rights group, said.

‘Think being stealthy about meeting online – using pseudonyms, avatars, ephemeral messages, coding text to identify one another,’ she said, adding that this includes tools like un-sending messages and encrypted chats.

‘These sorts of tactics people adopt when living under the risk of prosecution to allow communities to thrive and continue.’

The activist says that many countries that criminalise LGBTQ+ people often rely on people’s digital footprints, such as on their mobile phones, to prosecute them.

‘These people have to find these methods to protect themselves,’ the activist added, ‘it’s going to be a vital situation for queer Qataris to thrive despite the risks.’

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