Lebanon’s culture minister said Wednesday he had asked authorities to ban the hit movie “Barbie” for purportedly “promoting homosexuality”, as anti-LGBTQ rhetoric soars in one of the Middle East’s more liberal countries.
“It was decided… to send a request to Lebanon’s General Security agency… to take all necessary measures to ban showing this movie in Lebanon,” Culture Minister Mohammad Mortada said in a statement.
The film “promotes homosexuality and transsexuality… supports rejecting a father’s guardianship, undermines and ridicules the role of the mother, and questions the necessity of marriage and having a family,” he said.
The film, which has topped $1 billion in global revenues, was due to be screened in Lebanese cinemas from August 31.
Though it was widely anticipated by LGBTQ communities worldwide, the film does not contain any overt references to same-sex relationships or queer themes.
Lebanon’s move comes amid a growing anti-LGBTQ campaign, spearheaded by Lebanon’s powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, and as LGBTQ activists have been pushing to decriminalise same-sex relations.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has called for a boycott of rainbow products and said last month that gay people, “even if they do it once… are to be killed”.
While Lebanon is generally considered more tolerant of sexual diversity than other Arab countries, the police regularly raid gay bars and other LGBTQ-friendly spaces.
Lebanese law currently allows courts to punish “unnatural” sexual relations with up to one year in prison.
