Hypothetically, is a gay person allowed to visit Saudi Arabia if they don't do anything gay while in the country?

Or is a simple history of homosexuality enough to fear imprisonment?

Saudi criminal laws aren’t codified. In theory, the Quran is the source of law, with various royal decrees layered on top. In the Quran, it’s actual homosexual acts that are the crime. So simply being homosexual should not, in theory, get you in trouble. But in practice, the CPVPV has wide latitude. People have been arrested for flying a rainbow flag: https://www.google.com/amp/www.independent.co.uk/news/world/.... People have also been arrested for their social media activity: https://www.google.com/amp/www.washingtonblade.com/2016/03/2...

This is bullshit, of course. He wasn't killed for waving a flag. He was killed because he was part of a violent group attacking Israeli soldiers.

You're being downvoted for injecting a political topic (the Israeli-Palestinian conflict) into an unrelated article on chess and Saudi Arabia, not because of "narrative"

...into an unrelated political topic.

This is a war the Palestinians cannot win conventionally, so it is heavily waged through the court of public opinion. Hamas’s bread and butter is exploiting tragedies for propaganda wins, which is why they fire rockets from schools and hospitals.

The Israelis for their part have strict engagement protocols, although the cynic in me believes avoiding PR issues is at least as big of a factor as avoiding loss of life. From that realpolitik standpoint, they screwed up here.

The fact of the matter is - if you are part of violent protests, even if you are just sitting and waving a flag, you’re taking a risk.

The fact that the propaganda machine is now spinning is business as usual, sadly. And gets neither side closer to a resolution.

I think the real fact here is that whatever Israel does, no matter how wicked and evil or what the evidence shows, you get downvoted to oblivion for stating the facts because they speak against the actions of Israel. Hackernews seems like a slightly more civilized version of reddit, but when it comes to politics, the insane bias shines through.

It is not a topic that can be discussed either rationally or decently most places on the internet.

You bear some responsibility for this too. Coming out charging with flamebait, then blaming others when you get a flamewar, is incongruent. That's independent, by the way, of whether your underlying views are right or wrong, or even whether your indignation is justified.

We ban accounts that use HN primarily for political battle, regardless of which politics. So if you'd like to keep commenting here, please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and take the spirit of this site, i.e. intellectual curiosity, to heart.

As a person who visited SA I know for a fact that even among muslims who have homosexual inclinations, that it's not a problem unless one acts upon it or tries to 'propagate' against the established and accepted moral foundations. Not sure about the specifics of the visit rules tho, but I doubt that they would ask you about that, instead they would ask you about your religion.

Well Saudi hypocrisy does not make the Parent any more secure when visiting SA.

The fact that they are hypocritical when applying rules to themselves is not really a defense now is it?

Keep in mind realities of class and power exist in Saudi Arabia as well. As a guest of the World Chess Championship, you'll be given much more leeway than a regular Saudi citizen.

How rich and/or successful do you have to be to not be imprisoned for being gay in KSA? Is there a specific level of achievement or do you fill out a waiver application?

Apparently, there is no level to avoid being imprisoned, but if you are suitably wealthy, you will be held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Detainment Facility.

A lot of people can't visit a lot of countries. The list of people deported/denied entry into country X is too long.

>International events should not happen there.

Why? What is your rationale?

If the point is competetion between all coumtries, excluding some is directly contrary to the goal of an international contest. I find it quite clear.

Which country is being excluded? I have no idea what you're talking about. Are you talking about the article or the comment or some imagined point? The article is about a player voluntarily choosing not going to a country. Its important to note that people can disagree over methods being employed to reduce discrimination.

> Which country is being excluded?

Until the very last minute, Saudi Arabia refused to issue visas to any players from Israel, Iran, or Qatar. At the last minute, they allowed players from Iran and Qatar in.

They continued to refuse to allow any players from Israel in.

A pretty easy litmus test of whether a country is worth visiting: would you be comfortable standing on a corner in a major city with a sign critical of the dominant religion?

That is a poor test, and no travel website AFAIK uses it. Most people don't feel the need to offend someone over their personal beliefs. Its not a useful technique if your goal is to get people to be more inclusive.

"Be more tolerant! BTW, F* your god ! "

Love the false equivocation.

Love your assumption without explanation. Its easy to be sarcastic.