The ‘Nightmare’ of Beg Gay Tunisia - DAWN

Contents:

• COMMENT çA SE PASSE EN TUNISIE QUAND ON T GAY ?
• IS THERE ANY GAY BARS OR CLUBS HAMMAMET TUNISIA - HAMMAMET FOM
• RENNTRE GRATUE GAY TUNISIE
• THE 'NIGHTMARE' OF BEG GAY TUNISIA
• TUNISIA ULTIMATE ERARY: THGS TO DO AND SEE WH 10 DAYS GAY TUNISIA
• POLICE ARRT LEADG GAY ACTIVIST CRACKDOWN ON TUNISIA RALLY
• GAY ET TRANSGENRE à TUNIS
• LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE

COMMENT çA SE PASSE EN TUNISIE QUAND ON T GAY ?

My bf and I will be gog to Hammamet om Augt 14th - 're no scene queens, but would be kewl to go to a gay hangout some time durg our stay... Strangely the Dis our hotel ( Le Hammamet Hotel) was packed wh Tunisian Men all Dancg wh each other (very closely and looked very gay) and I got more attentn that my iend Vicky did!! It is very siar to Indian and Mlim culture, as homosexualy is illegal and often seen not to exist - therefore the men are very affectnate wh each other as is seen as 'safe' i.

IS THERE ANY GAY BARS OR CLUBS HAMMAMET TUNISIA - HAMMAMET FOM

Belhadj, who was 38 years old at the time, was charged wh homosexual activy and taed the civil prison of Mornaguia, southwt of the Tunisian pal. Belhadj's story is all-too faiar Tunisia, where the crimalizatn of homosexualy ntradicts the right to privacy and nondiscrimatn that is supposedly enshred Tunisia's 2014 nstutn. His oral shows what is like livg as an LGBTQ person a untry where homosexualy is nmned and illegal, and the social stigma of beg exposed n have dire nsequenc on people's a recent terview wh Democracy Exile, Belhadj said that his se was overwhelmgly publicized whout his knowledge while he was prison.

"Belhadj's story is all-too faiar Tunisia, where the crimalizatn of homosexualy ntradicts the right to privacy and nondiscrimatn that is supposedly enshred the nstutn. Ali Boselmi, the executive director of Mawjoud—"We Exist, " Arabic—a Tunisian NGO fightg for LGBTQ rights, nfirmed Belhadj's acunt of prison and scribed the majory of Tunisian society as homophobic.

"When Mounir Baatour, who is also the head of Tunisia's Liberal Party, announced 2019 that he would n for the untry's princy, he beme the first openly gay printial ndidate not only Tunisia but throughout the Arab world.

RENNTRE GRATUE GAY TUNISIE

The stigma of beg intified as gay led to more discrimatn public, cludg whenever he went out to bars and f, and equent harassment by police. Belhadj said that three bouncers at a mic venue Tunis beat him wh baseball bats a night after he attend a ncert there, bee they regnized him as the gay filmmaker who appeared on the news. Asked why the Tunisian ernment allows the NGOs to operate while the penal crimaliz homosexualy, Baatour said that there is a difference between civil and crimal law: "The civil law allows to create an associatn, but the crimal law nmns homosexualy.

"LGBTQ activists and human rights lawyers prott outsi a urt Tunis after filg a requt mandg the crimalizatn of homosexualy the untry, followg an appeal agast the sentencg of two Tunisians jailed unr the strict penal , Dec.

THE 'NIGHTMARE' OF BEG GAY TUNISIA

Tunisia ultimate erary: thgs to do and see wh 10 days gay TunisiaStori > Iterari > Tunisia ultimate erary: thgs to do and see wh 10 days gay TunisiaSomethg of a sand-buried secret North Ai is the natn of Tunisia, beneftg om both Mederranean beach and Saharan dun that enclose much the way of unique natnal culture. In realy, homosexualy is a crimal offence Tunisia (punishable by up to 3 years imprisonment), meang that beg open is not advisable while travellg the untry.

Dpe this, creased lol LGBTQ+ activism and acceptance has risen up sce the 2011 revolutn, makg Tunisia one of the better plac the Arab world to be Tunisia gay scene is not easy to fe but, thanks to the ter, ’s bee ever easier to tap to s varyg levels. From ‘straight’ unhappy hbands to ‘same-sex-not-gay’ liaisons between iends, the gay work certaly exists, allowg for discreet (yet cisy) nnectns at any time.

The lack of anisatn and outward stutns however means ’s hard to form a legimate gay muny, but ongog work om anisatns like ‘Associatn Shams’ and ‘Mawjoud’ helps prent a proud face for gay Tunisia. Young people jo anti-Saied monstratns amid growg anger at print’s proposed new, Tunisia – Police have arrted a leadg gay rights mpaigner a vlent phback agast young people durg a rally agast the upg referendum on the Tunisian print’s newly proposed nstutn.

TUNISIA ULTIMATE ERARY: THGS TO DO AND SEE WH 10 DAYS GAY TUNISIA

In other words, where Bud Light has buckled unr prsure as bigotry grows agast the LGBTQ+ muny, Gay Water’s creator Spencer Hodson wants his new boozy brand to be the anthis of that. “The key issue that Bud Light tapped to was the fact that they didn’t unrstand their re dience and know enough about them,” Hodson, a gay man, told CNN about the ntroversy that began when the Anhser-Bch beer brand sent fluencer Dylan Mulvaney a n of beer. Hodson built up a strong social media followg on TikTok and Instagram durg Covid-19 and is g some of the money om that (as well as om iends and fay) to help fund Gay Water.

“Gay is an umbrella term and the ia behd the brand is to be as clive as possible, which means we want alli, we want straight people to be part of this muny we’re buildg.”.

Gay Water might not have the ep pockets pared to s petors, like Whe Claw, but “even at small sle, pani of many siz are havg succs makg spir-based seltzers and premixed cktails,” Bryan Roth, an analyst for Feel Goods Company and edor of the alhol beverage newsletter, Sightl+, told CNN. “There’s lots of space the spir-based seltzer tegory which Gay Water n play, pecially if the brand n offer a cultural or emotnal nnectn that will feel more excg than the prospect of another peapple-flavored vodka seltzer om natnal or ternatnal rporatns,” Roth said.

POLICE ARRT LEADG GAY ACTIVIST CRACKDOWN ON TUNISIA RALLY

Of urse, other drks e the word “gay,” too, cludg Gay Beer and So Gay Rosé, Hodson noted, which are also tryg to reach the queer muny and offer them an alternative the straight-domated space.

The gay lols I met there through iends on Facebook had no problem wh my beg Jewish, and some even took me to vis a cemetery that clus the grav of Jewish-Amerin soldiers who helped liberate Tunisia om the Nazis.

GAY ET TRANSGENRE à TUNIS

(Like Tunisia's few synagogu and other remnants of the untry's almost-vanished Jewish muny, is heavily guard to protect om vandalism.)Tunisia is also the only Mlim untry I have vised so far which I met gay men who had e out to their fai voluntarily; of the two such men I enuntered, one's parents were divorced and the other's father was ad.

There are no official meetg spots for gay people, and the only place I saw gay men socializg public was at a small hamam, or bathhoe, hidn on a ty street.

No ndoms were sight; although they are available pharmaci, many of the gay men I met had never bought them.Younger gay men tend to meet onle through gay webs, and sneak to each other's hom at night or when their parents are away.

LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE

(Lol men are forbidn om even visg tourists hotels.) Bee public exposure remas a risk--I met two guys whose angry ex-boyiends had tattled on them to their fai--many gay men prefer to socialize wh Wternized women iends, or travel to Europe if they n get visas. Although straight Tunisian men often walk wh their arms around their iends' shoulrs, my gay Tunisian iends don't allow themselv to do the same.