Brunei is set to adopt strict Islamic laws, including death by stoning for gay sex, on April 3. Many in the country's LGBT community are considering fleeing -- and some already have:
When the tiny, oil-rich kingdom of Brunei first announced in 2013 that it would adopt strict Islamic laws, including death by stoning for gay sex, many in the country's LGBT community considered fleeing.
But some stayed on, hoping that the law, which is set to be formally enacted on April 3, would never come to pass."It's really scary," says Khairul, a young gay man in Brunei who spoke to CNN over the phone. He and others interviewed by CNN for this story asked that their real identities to be hidden over concerns for their safety and that of their families. "I thought I would not be accepted.
Asian nation set to punish homosexual sex with death 01:35"Brunei Darussalam is a sovereign Islamic and fully independent country and, like all other independent countries, enforces its own rule of law," the statement said.Matthew Woolfe, the founder of The Brunei Project, a human rights organization, says that the reasons for the laws being implemented are not clear, but the economy could be one of them.
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