The UAE LGBT rights group posted a video featuring group members and their friends telling three short stories exemplifying life for LGBT people in the UAE and calling for dialogue.

Group members can not reveal their identity and speak directly without taking a huge risk in the UAE. Hence use paper with hand written messages, whilist hiding their identity.

It is not only means of protection but also an attempt to highlight the problem of wishing to be open in a society that not only excludes and banishes LGBT people but also outlaws same-sex love with severe punishments.

The first is of a policeman who serves the Emirates well and is keenly interested in justice but in the end fears that he would be branded a criminal for his love for another man.

The second is of an obstetric nurse that fights hard for delivering babies into the world babies, while she is denied her own human right as her life a lesbian.

The third and final character is a teacher who loves her work with school children, teaching them to be true and follow their dreams, only the hide her true lesbian self, lest her sexuality is made public and attracts abuse.

In the final scenes the nurse holds a sign calls for equality, the policeman holds hands with his lover while both hold a sign ‘we are not criminals’, followed the teacher calling for educating for diversity.

The video ends with the caption messages: ‘The time is now.

And the please: ‘Let’s talk’.

The video is accompanied by the tune of Aimee Mann’s melancholic-sweet song, ‘wise up’ – which was written for Magnolia, a film about people who come from an abusive background and are unhappy with themselves and what is around them.

The lyric emphasizes that only way out for them is just to give the pain up, ‘wise up’, and accept who they are and were.

Speaking with GSN, Adbulla, the chair and founder of the group said:

‘The song echoes the optimism and slight melancholic realism of our group members, who continue to find themselves in a difficult and even abusive situation due to laws, intolerance and prejudice.

‘The only “way out” is for both UAE’s society and also the victims of its homophobia, to give it up and “wise up”.

‘Our video is a plea for UAE society to give up prejudices and through dialogue ‘wise up’ – it is the only way forward for a more harmonious and healthy culture and country – and here giving up is the optimistic, not pessimistic, thing to do. This is why we invite everyone in the UAE to “let’s talk”.

‘These are ordinary citizens who work tirelessly to serve the emirates, some are teachers who work hard long hours to educate our youth, police officers who often lay down their lives to protect us, and health care professionals who work long shifts to ensure we receive the best care possible.

‘Yet they all lack basic human rights as LGBT people, we owe it to them as an Emarati society as much as we owe it to ourselves and future generations to sit down and engage in dialogue, in hope to build a stronger community and to nurture equality in a diverse country.

‘The time is now to stop the name calling and to sit down and see that these are our own people, and they are being vilified, prosecuted and jailed, because they love differently’.

Nasira, the director of the group stated: ‘What the video really helps highlight, is that whilst we have our differences, we are all the same.

‘We, as in the LGBT, call ourselves a “community’” but what we really are a part of a global community made up of individuals, each trying to live our lives morally and without injury or prejudice to our fellow human beings.

‘That is the right we strive to be given.

‘We all need to appreciate that whilst we are all individuals, we have a collective impact on our fellow human beings, and we owe it not only future generations, but to OUR generation to educate and highlight the simple principle that we may be born into difference and yet we should all be equal’.

Watch the video here:

