The Trans woman who urged her followers to hunt and out gay men says she was trying to “humanize” homosexuality

Naoufal Moussa, the trans beauty influencer from Morocco, who encouraged her followers to out gay men, has claimed she was trying to “humanize” homosexuality.

Moussa came under fire last month when she encouraged her hundreds of thousands of followers to track down gay men through dating apps and publicly out them. Any form of same-sex intimacy – including kissing – is illegal in Morocco and is punishable by up to three years in prison. Moussa’s actions led to gay men being outed online and some reportedly thrown out of their homes by homophobic families.

And Moussa has now tried to defend her actions.

She claimed in an interview with Reuters that she did not intend for gay men to be outed. “My intention was to ‘humanize’, ‘un-demonize’ and ‘normalize’ 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.”

But this does not line up with the views expressed by Moussa in her original Instagram Live broadcast, where she urged people to out gay men.

In her now-deleted Instagram Live videos, Moussa 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 fuck 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. It could even show you your husband, your son. It could show you your neighbour from next door. It could show you your cousin, your uncle. Everyone.”

Many gay men were subsequently sent threatening and violent messages. Someone even reportedly committed suicide as a result of her broadcast.

Moussa’s Instagram and Facebook accounts were suspended in April by Facebook, with the social media company saying it would not allow anyone to out members of the LGBT+ community.

Following the outing campaign, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the Moroccan government to repeal the section of its constitution that punishes same-sex relations.

“The real problem with such homophobic campaigns, regardless of how they were instigated, is that Morocco’s anti-LGBT law encourages them, if not incubates them,” HRW spokesman Ahmed Benchemsi said.