by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 4:19 PM ET, Thu April 4, 2019
With Brunei adopting a shocking new law that makes homosexual sex punishable by death by stoning, a growing list of high profile names and international organizations are urging a protest of all hotels owned by the country's wealth fund.
The law, which went into effect yesterday, has triggered international condemnation and has been labeled "medieval" and inhumane.
According to the BBC, Brunei's new measure makes anal sex and adultery offenses punishable by stoning to death. Additional crimes, such as theft, are now punishment by amputation.
George Clooney led the charge in speaking out against such horrific laws, and others have since followed suit, including Elton John.
"I commend my friend, #GeorgeClooney, for taking a stand against the anti-gay discrimination and bigotry taking place in the nation of #Brunei -- a place where gay people are brutalized, or worse-by boycotting the Sultan's hotels," John said in a tweet.
Amnesty International also issued a statement criticizing Brunei's Sharia Penal Code. It said the legal changes were announced in a discreet notice on the attorney general's website.
"To legalize such cruel and inhuman penalties is appalling of itself. Some of the potential 'offences' should not even be deemed crimes at all, including consensual sex between adults of the same gender," said Rachel Chhoa-Howard, Brunei Researcher at Amnesty International.
"These abusive provisions received widespread condemnation when plans were first discussed five years ago."
The international non-profit called on the country to halt in implementing such a vicious measure and to revise its penal code in compliance with human rights obligations. Under international human rights law, corporal punishment in all its forms, such as stoning, amputation or whipping, constitutes torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment, which is prohibited in all circumstances.
The organization also urged the international community to speak up and condemn Brunei's move.
As news of the measure spread, Brunei's gay community expressed shock and fear over the adoption of such "medieval punishments".
"You wake up and realize that your neighbors, your family or even that nice old lady that sells prawn fritters by the side of the road doesn't think you're human, or is okay with stoning," one Bruneian gay man, who did not want to be identified, told the BBC.
For those wishing to join the boycott, John shared a list of hotels owned by the Brunei sovereign wealth fund, the Brunei Investment Agency, a government-owned wealth fund that invests on behalf of the small oil-rich sultanate, according to Bloomberg.
The hotels to avoid include London's Dorchester, along with the Hotel Bel-Air and the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles. The properties form part of the Dorchester Collection of luxury hotels, owned by the Brunei Investment Agency, Bloomberg explained.
Additional hotels include: 45 Park Lane, London; Coworth Park, UK; Le Meurice, Paris; Hotel Plaza Athenee, Paris; Hotel Eden, Rome and Hotel Principe di Savoia, Mi
"Let's be clear, every single time we stay at or take meetings at or dine at any of these nine hotels we are putting money directly into the pockets of men who choose to stone and whip to death their own citizens for being gay or accused of adultery," Clooney said.
"This April 3rd will hold its own place in history. On this particular April 3rd the nation of Brunei will begin stoning and whipping to death any of its citizens that are proved to be gay," Clooney wrote in an article penned for the website Deadline last week. "Let that sink in. In the onslaught of news where we see the world backsliding into authoritarianism, this stands alone."
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