Weapons of mass homophobia: for weeks we have been pummeled with images of homosexual acts used as a tactic to humiliate and torture Iraqi prisoners. Such atrocities, writes Patrick Moore, arise directly from the vicious demonization of gay people in our society, from the White House on down.

The images of Iraqi prisoners being tortured were so disturbing that it took me several days to confront the exact nature of my discomfort. It extended beyond the knowledge that American soldiers were brutalizing prisoners. It was more personal and related to the shame I felt as a gay man while looking at the photos.

The world was stunned by these images not only because of their brutality but also because of their sexual nature. Homophobia in the American military is nothing new, but the abuse of homosexual sex as a military tactic achieves a new level of perverse ingenuity. Confronted with the use of their sexuality as the ultimate tool of degradation, gay men now have another reason to fight against the reelection of George Bush. We should be at the forefront of outraged protests against these war crimes as we will ultimately pay the price for our sexuality being further stigmatized.

It is confusing to apply Western words such as gay to the acts depicted in the images coming from Iraq and to try to reconcile the concept with the lives of men living in Islamic cultures. Because gay implies an identity and a culture in addition to describing sexual acts, it is difficult for a gay man in the West to effectively understand the level of humiliation endured by the prisoners.

The American tactics of humiliating Arab men by forcing them to display their naked bodies and violating them by real or simulated acts of anal intercourse would not be effective if Islam itself did not have such a uneasy relationship with homosexuality. Sex between men does occur in Islamic society, but the shame is in gay identity rather than the actual homosexual acts. As long as a man does not accept the feminine "passive" role in sex with another man, there is no shame in the behavior as long as it remains within accepted power structures. Shame truly comes only with the openness of gay identity, which is actively punished. The latest reports indicate that the prisoners were not only physically abused but accused of being homosexuals, which is a far greater degradation in Islamic culture.

Islam's rejection of homosexuality is common knowledge, and it is hard to believe that sexual humiliation was not explicitly discussed as a tactic for eliciting cooperation from prisoners. Statements from Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who supervised the military police during a period of the abuse, indicate that the actions were part of a carefully planned strategy and that the soldiers were in fact praised for their efforts at "softening up" inmates.

During its time in Afghanistan, the U.S. military has had ample opportunity to examine the complexities of homosexual relationships in an Islamic country. Ironically, sexual unions between older men and teenage boys have long been an accepted part of Afghan society as an elaborate form of prostitution. The older man, usually married with children, actively courts a boy living in poverty with offers of gifts and money, which prove powerful lures. The stigma of gay identity is avoided because the child's age dehumanizes him in much the same way that women are relegated to the status of objects.

Surprisingly, the humiliations of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Gharib suggest that the U.S. military has finally taken the time to understand some element of Islamic culture. Unfortunately, it has used that knowledge to develop a policy that is thoroughly shaming both to those victimized by it and to the American people who see themselves further degraded in the eyes of the world.

It is disconcerting to see women, who have worked so hard for acceptance in the military, as prime participants in these acts of torture. One of the stranger aspects of the pictures is the active, even joyful, participation of women in the process. A female soldier flashing a "thumb's up" in front of a man's compromised body or posing for "tourist" photos behind piles of men who appear to be dead adds an extra note of horror for gay eyes trying to take in the images. (The pile of bodies immediately triggers associations with the Holocaust, in which gay men were eliminated along with Jews and other undesirables.) On some level, women have always seemed to understand that their position in society is similar to that of gay people, which is one reason that gay men and straight women form such powerful bonds of friendship. The idea that female soldiers are as capable as men of such atrocities is disorienting because it forces gay men to acknowledge women as threatening. It would, in a way, be easier for me to accept the images had they not featured women in this unwelcome new role.

These women may well have been facing pressure in an environment where heterosexual rape by male soldiers is regularly reported. The actions taken by female soldiers probably elevated their standing in the eyes of their male counterparts and gave the women the pleasure of finally having someone less powerful to victimize in a way they themselves may have experienced.

Media analysis of the torture images has been stilted, as writers and editors are forced into discussions of sexuality that they would clearly prefer to avoid. In nearly every story the largest photo and lead paragraphs feature the threat of electrocution faced by one prisoner rather than the sexual torture of many more. When the writers felt compelled to discuss sex, most focused on "simulated sex" as an easier topic than describing in detail the fact that some prisoners were anally raped with objects such as broom handles while others were urinated on.

One wonders, as more information comes out, whether we will hear that there were actual rapes and explicit sexual interaction between prisoners and torturers. Even hi the simulated acts, the photos contain an edge of sexual tension that implies such connections.

The military's use of gay sex as a weapon of torture gives them the added value of humiliating gay men in the West. Seeing one's very identity utilized as an extreme form of torture that has evoked worldwide outrage is a mortifying experience for those of us living in the supposedly more enlightened Western world. For the closeted gay men and lesbians serving in the military, it must evoke complete terror. The false progress of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy and the Bush administration's disingenuous statements about "compassionate conservatism" have been revealed as lies by the use of sexual terror as a tool of war.

Gay men actually have some complicity in this situation. As we allow our culture to become more and more desexualized, opting for roles as monogamous spouses and television decorators, gay men have permitted society to cast our sexuality as a shameful and secret thing, an unspeakable taboo for both us and others.

Naturally, the Bush administration has condemned the acts of torture now that they have entered the public arena. However, we as Americans must now confront the society that nurtured such atrocities. American life has become increasingly reactive over the past few decades, and we have become accustomed to responding to problems only when they reach a crisis stage or emerge as a scandal. But these acts are one more indication that we need to begin asking ourselves if the increasingly puritanical nature of American culture actually encourages uses of sexuality that we can all agree are disgusting. As the Bush administration elicits more and more outrage in the Arab world, let's hope that it awakens some gay rage here in the United States.

Moore is the author of Beyond Shame: Reclaiming the Abandoned History of Radical Gay Sexuality (Beacon Press).