Openly LGBTQ individuals are subject to criminal penalties under the law making homosexual relations punishable by up to 15 years in prison with fines and deportation; the law also criminalizes and makes punishable by prison time promoting homosexuality, doctors performing gender-affirming surgery , and men deliberately acting like women. Openly gay men are not permitted to serve in the military and same-sex marriage or civil unions are illegal.
Following British occupation of Iraq, very strict sodomy laws were put in place. Once Iraqi independence was achieved, these laws still remained. In recent years, leaders within Iraq have spoken out about reducing sodomy laws within the country. Regardless of the reduced laws, discrimination, harassment, and murders of LGBT community members still persist. The Iraqi government has maintained an anti-LGBTQ stance since gaining independence in where homosexuality was officially banned.
In the Epic of Gilgamesh , which was composed in the Mesopotamian kingdom of Sumer , the relationship between the main protagonist Gilgamesh and the character Enkidu has been seen by some to be homosexual in nature. If a man copulates with his equal from the rear, he becomes the leader among his peers and brothers. In the ancient Assyrian society, the Almanac of Incantations featured prayers praising the equality of love between heterosexual and gay male couples. It speaks of a "seignior" high social figure in the community and his "neighbor" someone of equal social status : [ 15 ].
If a seignior [an Assyrian man] lay with his neighbor [another citizen], when they have prosecuted him and convicted him [the first citizen], they shall lie with him and turn him into a eunuch.
Islam became a major religion in the region following the first Arab conquest of the region in the 7th century. However, despite the prohibitory nature of Islamic doctrine against homosexuality, the presence of homosexuals in the region continued up to the present. In the early Safavid era β , when the Safavid empire ruled Mesopotamia from to , male houses of prostitution amrad khane were legally recognized and paid due government taxes.
