Bombarded with death threats, the head of Tunisia’s first lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) online radio station on Wednesday refused to stop his efforts to promote tolerance in a country where homosexuality is illegal.
Bouhdid Belhedi, the executive director of Shams, a local LGBT rights group, started up Shams Rad with support from the Dutch embassy in Tunis to build a community to discuss human rights, equality and justice.
Even LGBT rights activists are, according to Amnesty International, targeted for “abuse and harassment,” such as a court of first instance order to suspend Shams activity. The accusation was that they had committed a crime by claiming that they “intended to defend homosexuals,”