Pakistan Man Sent to Psych Hospital After Trying to Set up First Gay Club

A man is allegedly being held in a psychiatric institution by local authorities after he attempted to establish Pakistan’s gay club. The individual who remains anonymous was allegedly detained and imprisoned in the psychiatric institution following his application to establish a business in Abbottabad.

According to an application that was filed to the deputy commissioner of a northern Pakistani city, the club would have been of “great convenience” for LGBTQ+ individuals in the area and “other parts of the country” generally.

The man asserted that the club he tentatively named “Lorenzo gay club” would have strict sex rules on the premises.

According to the applications, a clear notice on the wall would warn individuals against sex on the premises, “This would mean that no legal constraints would be flouted on the premises.”

Homosexuality is illegal in Pakistan under the 1860 Penal Code which criminalizes acts of carnal knowledge against the order of nature” and was introduced by the British during the colonial era.

 After Abbottabad’s Deputy Commissioner said that the application was under review and the application leaked on social media, the individual was arrested and later transferred to Sarehad Hospital for psychiatric review and has stayed there since 9 May.

Speaking to The Age before he was transferred to the psychiatric hospital, the individual said that he wants “everyone’s human rights to be defended.”

He shared, “I have started the struggle for the rights of the most neglected community in Pakistan and I will raise my voice in every forum,”

“If the authorities refuse, then I will approach the court and I hope that like the Indian court, the Pakistani court will rule in favour of gay people.”

Homosexuality was decriminalised in India after a five-judge Constitutional Bench overturned a Supreme Court decision on the Johar v Union case in 2018, striking down the provisions of a similar Penal Code to Pakistan’s.

His friends assert that they are absolutely concerned over his security and have been blocked from visiting him, “Everyone is afraid that talking about it will put them in danger,” one individual reportedly said, adding that they had “tried to find out about him a couple of times” to no avail.