Tyler Wright is “risking her life going to a place where being an LGBTQ+ person is punishable by DEATH”
The big-wave world champion Keala Kennelly, once described, controversially I think, as “the best female surfer on earth”, has thrown her social media weight behind calls for the WSL to cancel a wave pool event being held in Sharia-ruled Abu Dhabi in case two-time world champ Tyler Wright is killed for being gay.
WSL released their 2025 tour schedule and the second event
is in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
HOW IN THE HELL does WSL think it’s ok to sell an event to a
location where it’s ILLEGAL to be an LGBTQ + person when they have
a 2x world champion @tylerwright who is an openly gay athlete who
has a pride flag on her jersey???
So now Tyler has to decide if she is going to damage her career
by missing the event or compete knowing she is risking her life
going to a place where being an LGBTQ+ person is punishable by
DEATH.
Let’s put poor Tyler’s potential execution aside for a
moment.
@wsl is having a women’s professional surfing event in a
country where
Emirati women live under male guardianship. “Honor Killings”
can go unpunished, as the victim’s family can pardon the murderer.
Marital rape is not criminalized in the UAE and the UAE is a major
destination for sex trafficking.
The WSL should be putting the health, safety and wellbeing of
their athletes over $$$ and the athletes should boycott the event
like they did in South Africa when sunnygarcia couldn’t compete
because at the time black people were not allowed on the
beach.
Hosting events in countries that have blatant human rights
violations should be unacceptable. Do you agree?Blast this
post all over social media if you agree.
Keala helpfully included screenshots of the relevant laws in the UAE. Although, to be fair, no one is getting shot or stoned and the UAE did sign the Abraham Accords with Israel which means if they can stomach the Jews they can probably get their head around gays eventually although same-sex marriage may take a while.
The furore kicked off three days ago when Tyler Wright’s older brother Mikey lit up on the WSL’s Instagram posting announcing the 2025 schedule.
“You have no business putting on an event at a location where my sister can be sentenced by law with the death penalty. So much for equality and equal rights, only when it’s convenient to wsl. You have supported the LGBTQ flag on her shoulder but now you want to strip it and be hush hush to get her to a location that she’s at risk of this punishment. You have the responsibility to protect your athletes, interested to see how you think you can protect her against the law.”
Sharia law, if you didn’t know, is the moral and religious code for the souls among us who practice Islam. It considers homosexual acts as sinful and punishable and recommends imprisonment, floggings or the death penalty, sometimes even adding a stoning into the mix for laughs.
Criticism of Sharia is generally regarded as Islamophobic so, like, don’t go there.
Like, yay Queers for Palestine! River to the Sea, Hamas and Hezbollah are freedom fighters etc.