in the municipal headquarters, where they were then photographed naked. This operation was condemned by numerous gay rights activists. Lebanon's Interior Minister of the Interim Government, Marwan Charbel, supported the Mayor of Dekwaneh saying, "Lebanon is opposed to homosexuality, and according to Lebanese law it is a criminal offense." On 11 July 2013, the Lebanese Psychiatric Society (LPS) released a statement saying that homosexuality is not a mental disorder and does not need to be treated, they said: "Homosexuality in itself does not cause any defect in judgment, stability, reliability or social and professional abilities", "The assumption that homosexuality is a result of disturbances in the family dynamic or unbalanced psychological development is based on wrong information". Also, the LPS stated that conversion therapy, seeking to "convert" gays and bisexuals into straights has no scientific background and asked health professionals to "rely only on science" when giving opinion and treatment in this matter. This made Lebanon the first Arab country to declassify homosexuality as a "disease". From 29 November to 1 December 2013, an independent group organized TransFocus, "an independent film festival that revolves around trans* and gender-variant topics, questions, persons, and politics in Lebanon". The three-day event was non-profit, funded via online crowdsourcing, and was carried out by a "bunch of friends and local organizers" aimed to be "outside any institution, organization or collective; international or local." The event featured film screenings, a focused discussion panel, a resource collection project, and an exhibition. This marked the first Lebanese public film festival focusing on trans voices and topics. On 28 January 2014, a court in the municipality of Jdeideh ruled out a case against a transgender woman accused of having an "unnatural" sexual relationship with a man. In January 2017, a Lebanese judge challenged the legal basis of the arrest of men for same-sex conduct. In his ruling, Judge Maalouf referred to a penal code provision protecting freedom of expression, Article 183, which states that "an act undertaken in exercise of a right without abuse shall not be regarded as an offense." "If no harm is done, there is no crime", the judge wrote in his decision. Despite these rulings, Article 534 of the Penal Code still stands. Georges Azzi, executive director of the Arab Foundation for Freedoms and Equality, told the Washington Blade in 2017: "Homosexuality is technically illegal in Lebanon, however the new generation of judges are less