ABOUT FACE

Anti-LGBTQ Qatar Will Confiscate Rainbow Flags at World Cup

FIFA had previously said the flags would be permitted.

Qatar may prevent World Cup attendees from waving the rainbow flag in solidarity with LGBTQ rights, an about face decision that contradicts FIFA’s previous assertion it would be permitted. Major General Abdulaziz Abdullah Al Ansari, who leads Qatar’s department of international cooperation, claimed to the Associated Press that the move was actually a security measure aimed at protecting LGBTQ people who could be attacked for vocally supporting their sexuality. “If he [a fan] raised the rainbow flag and I took it from him, it’s not because I really want to, really, take it, to really insult him, but to protect him,” Al Ansari said. “Because if it’s not me, somebody else around him might attack [him] ... I cannot guarantee the behavior of the whole people.” Al Ansari did not try to say Qatar was normally fine with LGBTQ people, however, as the country criminalizes same-sex relationships. “Watch the game. That’s good,” he said. “But don’t really come in and insult the whole society because of this.”