Shell in ‘pro-gay rights hypocrisy’ over Qatar

Shell is accused of hypocrisy for flaunting its pro-gay credentials online while pouring billions of pounds into Qatar’s homophobic regime.

The oil giant has devoted a section of its website to highlighting its “support for LGBT+” equality. But critics have rounded up the £170 billion company after it unveiled the latest phase of a partnership with state-owned QatarEnergy.

Shell will invest £1.3 billion in Qatar’s North Field South project, it was announced last week. The two announced a partnership in July to realize the “largest project in the history of liquefied natural gas.”

LGBT+ refers to lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders and people of other sexual orientations and gender identities. Gay men and women are persecuted in the Arab nation, where homosexuality is considered abnormal and carries a three-year prison sentence.

Labor MP Chris Bryant, who sits on the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, said there was “clear a discrepancy” between Shell’s words and Qatar’s “reprehensible” actions. Veteran human rights activist Peter Tatchell said Shell helped increase the wealth of a “homophobic, sexist and racist regime”. Tatchell, who was detained last week for organizing an LGBT protest in Qatar, said the oil company was “conspiring with a dictatorship.”

“It is hypocritical how Shell claims to support LGBT+ people while pumping money into a tyrannical anti-gay nation,” he added. Qatar arrests, jails and subjects LGBT+ people to abusive, harmful ‘conversion’ treatments that attempt to ‘correct’ their supposedly ‘wrong’ sexuality or gender identity. People in good conscience should consider boycotting Shell for destroying the environment and helping an anti-LGBT+ autocracy.”

The oil giant says it is committed to supporting LGBT people ‘wherever Shell operates’. It offers “awareness training” about sexual orientation as part of its diversity and inclusion program, and says this includes countries where LGBT possession may be illegal.

But it declined to condemn Qatar’s stance on LGBT rights and refused to commit to using its influence there to promote a change of position.

This is despite a section of its website called ‘powering pride’ which states: ‘We are working to promote lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender inclusion within Shell and the communities in which we work.’

The website goes on to say that most of its work on LGBT+ inclusion “is done at the country level in accordance with local policies, laws and regulations.”

While some say consumers and businesses should boycott Qatar for its stance on gay rights, others argue they should use their influence to drive change. Iain Anderson, head of H/Advisors Cicero and a former UK government’s LGBT Business Champion, said businesses “had an opportunity to participate” and talk to policymakers to drive change.

Human Rights Watch researcher Rasha Younes, who investigates abuses of LGBT rights in the Middle East, said companies like Shell have “leverage” to push authorities to change their laws and practices.

Younes said: “They should at the very least make public statements condemning these practices and urging the Qatari authorities to uphold human rights as a condition of their operations in the country.”

She added that companies may be “paying lip service” to LGBT rights.

The opposition to Shell’s investment in Qatar comes amid commotion over FIFA that will host the 2022 World Cup there in three weeks.

Shell said: ‘One of our core values ​​is respect for people, regardless of gender, age, race, religion or sexual orientation.’

It added that it was operating in accordance with local culture and local laws, and said its recent investment in Qatar was to bring an urgently needed supply of new gas to the UK and Europe to ease supply pressures.