The kids are not all right

Disturbing news from Bahrain. This country, for a long time thought to be one of the more liberal Muslim states, has got it in for gays. Not only have ministers called for homosexuals to be "rooted out" of hair salons and massage parlours, where they've set up businesses, but the proposal "will instruct teachers to look out for homosexual tendencies in children and to 'punish them accordingly'," says this Pink News story, which goes on:

The country only held its first elections in 2002, and since then politicians have mainly addressed themselves to "moral" issues such as banning female mannequins from shop windows and tackling the widespread problem of "sorcery."

In 2000 the government is thought to have deported two thousand gay Filipino workers for prostitution and homosexual activity. Gays can get ten years' jail, according to Pink News, although that's rare.