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.
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Islamophobes vs homophobes.
my money is on the homophobes
Simple choice. Tune in or tune out. And stop whining for goodness sake.
During the event I want to hear Joe Turpel describe the situation… “Unfortunately Tyler Wright was unable to make it to the event but it’s always good to celebrate Abu Dhabi and the rich, ancient culture. Hey Strider, did you know that same-sex sexual activity is prohibited under the Criminal Codes of the Emirates of Abu Dhabi, which criminalises ‘unnatural sex with another person’, and Dubai, which criminalises acts of ‘sodomy’. And let’s not forget Sharia Law, which states that same-sex sexual activity could be punished by the death penalty.
Scissor me timbers
Even stricter Arab countries have their fair share of fruitiness too, but the rules are just different in that people can’t turn it into a performative public identity and keep it behind closed doors. Same thing with booze. Same thing with being an unmarried straight couple residing there. This is seemingly an impossible ask for someone like Tyler for one week out of a year.
I’m just going to state the obvious – does actually anyone in the arab world care about surfing?
Christian Jesus walked over water, and longboarders clearly emulate it – therefore a blasphemous activity in the muslim world, akin to rug munching and ass poking.
Will they have customs police patrolling the athletes area looking for woke rainbows? Smelling wealthy expats poolside drinks to check for any alcohol?
What about all the “i’d like to thank god” post-heat interviews? Which god, bro?
I’m with Keala.
Soooo Keala won’t be DJing the after party stoning. What’s Fischer up to? We got deep pockets ovah heah.
“The WSL should be putting the health, safety and wellbeing of their athletes over $$$”
If that’s the case, then Teeahupoo and Pipe should be cancelled from the tour….
and what about JBay? more chances of getting attacked by a great white than getting your head lopped off for being a lesbian in Abu Dhabi.
Nonsence
*Nonsense
Touché.
Thank you
The Abu Dhabi Pro presented by Volcom Stoning
So the format is sudden death
that made me laugh…cheers
Rainbow burqas!
Lewis Hamilton uses the lgbctcswqs flag on his helmet and has never had an issue in.
He’s also not gay. Not the same thing.
On his helmet!?!? Did he show you!?
Xox
Classic
brilliant!
I’m not supposed to talk about what happens on Puff Daddy parties
Does this have anything to do with that second moon we have orbiting us?
But surfing is inherently gay. And so is the Woz.
We is allll gay, love is love.
Xox
hmm Sharia law , same as the Taliban…what could go wrong…or wright?
Finally a move by the WSL we can all get behind
Dare I say, there are plenty of Muslims who find the Wahhabi/Salafi interpretation of Sharia (that state laws in UAE, Saudi etc.) as illogical and stupid as most Christians find Mormonism. Except this is like if Mormonism was made the state religion and you had to follow it or you’d go to jail/maybe get stoned to death if they actually enforced the letter of the law
There used to be lots more Muslims who thought like this, before the Saudi oil dollar exported their particular form of Islam all over the world, fuelling extremism terrorism and garden-variety dumb dumb fundamentalism. Nearly all the Mullahs these days are trained in Wahhabi madrassas…
There’s some Islamophobia for yas
Everyone should calm down and wait for Surf Equity to weigh in before rushing to judgement.
There’s simply not enough GMO free popcorn on the shelves to watch that go down.
That, too, is a paradox, as corns supposed origin from the teosinte plant required genetic modification.
Obligatory
Surely the best musicians that have ever been lumped under the label ‘punk’
NOFX
No Xox
Hot Snakes
Sharif don’t like it!