In April, Naofal Moussa, an influencer in Morocco went live on Instagram to encourage the straight women amongst her followers to use gay dating apps and use pictures of men to find out which men in their lives are gay. The response was immediate and tragic; the gay community has since been living in fear. Many were outed, bullied and blackmailed, and others were thrown out of their family homes.
In an interview with Reuters, the influencer apologized and claimed that her advice was taken out of context.
“My intention was to ‘humanise’, ‘un-demonise’ and ‘normalise’ gay people in Morocco so we stop thinking of them as outcasts,” she said. “I literally wanted people to think of gay people as the man or woman next door and to stop the negative fantasy about who gay people are, how they look like and how they live.”
She added her intention was never to ‘out’ gay men, with increasing numbers using dating apps as the coronavirus pandemic has closed gay bars and other LGBT+ spaces globally, OpenlyNews reports.
However, her Instagram live video does not agree with her statement.
Pink News reports that in her now-deleted Instagram Live videos seen by them, and translated by queer activists in Morocco, Moussa – who is mainly known as a beauty influencer – said: “I feel bad for those faggots but I don’t care.” She urged her female followers to “go on the app store” and “type in the word ‘gay’”. “These gay apps will show you all the people who are near you. But you girls should create fake profiles and choose that you’re bottoms,” she continued. “Which means you want someone to f**k you.” Telling her followers that the three “famous” gay dating apps are Grindr, Planet Romeo and Hornet, she added: “Listen, girls and women that think they have manly gay husbands and sons…. these apps will show you the ‘gay’ people who are near you. “100 metres, 200 metres or even one metre. Just near you in the living room since everyone is home now.
Even if it was, the damage has been done and is irreversible.
“She has ruined the lives of so many people just in the past four days,” a gay man who lives in Casablanca tells Pink News. He knows at least 40 gay men who were exposed and have been kicked out of their homes in Casablanca alone, as a result of Moussa’s videos.
