spa | Gay Beit

Contents:

• GAY BEIT
• EVERYONE IS WELE: THE ONLY GAY HANGOUT THE ARAB WORLD
• GAY BEIT
• MEET 'THE FIRST AND ONLY GAY TOUR GUI THE ARAB MIDDLE EAST'
• GAY-REISEN LIBANON: SCHWUL LEBEN BEIT (INTERVIEW)
• GAY AND GAY-IENDLY HOTELS BEIT
• LEBANON LNCH POLICE RAIDS TARGETG GAY MEN
• GAY BEIT - BEIT FOM
• VERY VERY GAY IENDLY HAMAM - DAVUTPASA ISKELE HAMAMI
• WHAT PART OF THE MIDDLE EAST IS A GREAT GAY DTATN?
• EVERYONE IS WELE: THE ONLY GAY HANGOUT THE ARAB WORLD
• GAY-REISEN LIBANON: SCHWUL LEBEN BEIT (INTERVIEW)

GAY BEIT

Everyone is, a study bathed by the afternoon sunshe, Wael Hse, a 24-year-old gay man, is chattg wh Naya, a transgenr woman, ahead of Internatnal Day Agast Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOTB) on Thursday.

”Compared wh other untri the Middle East, such as Iran where homosexualy is punishable by ath, Lebanon has a relatively thrivg LGBT muny. ”Sce then Helem’s reputatn has spread beyond Lebanon throughout the Arab world and several siar anisatns have been set up, cludg the NGO Shams Tunisia, fightg for the crimalisatn of homosexualy. He ed to be the manager of Bardo, Beit’s most famo gay bar, before jog Helem, an experience he says has opened his ey to the discrimatn faced by those om prived social backgrounds.

EVERYONE IS WELE: THE ONLY GAY HANGOUT THE ARAB WORLD

Venue Dcriptn: not "gay, " olst Beit hammam, soap & oil massag. “There were eight or ne hammams [Turkish baths] the Old Cy, and four or five of those were gay.

And when I say gay, they were, like, so gay.

”His Aleppo is a liberal wonrland, a place where men n get on wh other men the public baths and a gay tour group n rent out a whole hotel wh no problems.

GAY BEIT

And this is jt the latt example of how his work, like me, is always domated by polics, bee how n be otherwise when he is a gay man takg groups of other gay men on tours around the Middle East? Bertho beme the Arab world’s first and only gay holiday rep 2005. He asked a iend to resign his webse wh a "gay iendly image", and that's how his pany, Lebtour, was born.

MEET 'THE FIRST AND ONLY GAY TOUR GUI THE ARAB MIDDLE EAST'

“If I was gog to do gay tours to Barcelona I’d have so much petn, ” he says. “All the gay people go on holiday there. After all, the Middle East is not a regn wh a reputatn for beg particularly open towards homosexualy.

In most Arab untri, beg actively gay is still punishable by law, even if, practice, the thori are unlikely to prosecute. In Lebanon the law prohibs "abnormal sex", but many people – pecially smopolan Beit – are openly gay.

And yet, even Lebanon, homosexuals are perdilly arrted and gay bars ocsnally, and arbrarily, shut down. “Most gay tourists who e for the first time say that they’re not expectg this, ” he says. “We’d go on tours of the hammams Aleppo, and Damasc was a paradise for gay people.

GAY-REISEN LIBANON: SCHWUL LEBEN BEIT (INTERVIEW)

And he started lghg bee was so clear that there were no women and that we were a group of gay men. ”I n’t que believe that uld have been so easy, so I ask him if he's openly gay.

In the photo a group of men stand Lebanon’s Baalbek, gathered behd an adaptn of the gay pri flag that's embellished wh a paw prt. But Hezbollah don't re whether you are gay or straight, bee, for them, ’s all about Israel.

It’s the only untry the Arab world where homosexualy is unambiguoly legal, but he tells me, spe that, s social norms make a ls tolerant place than both Lebanon and Syria. “There’s only one fé there that's gay-owned, but I’ve never even felt that that is a gay place, ” he says.

GAY AND GAY-IENDLY HOTELS BEIT

Next week I’m takg a gay scuba divg group there.

And, as you may already have gused, hardle Islamism is not good for gay bs. “Bad vers worse, ” as Bertho puts the hundreds of thoands of Syrians who have fled to Lebanon to pe the nflict are gay men who have watched their once tolerant untry cmble around them. He tells me that he has met men who have been arrted, beaten and raped before managg to make their pe – and all bee they are gay.

When we meet he has jt returned om a rearch trip there to spe out the gay-iendly plac he n take his tour groups to.

LEBANON LNCH POLICE RAIDS TARGETG GAY MEN

“I found some gay shisha f Cairo, but general the people are very sred, ” he says.

Egypt’s laws on homosexualy are far more dranian than Lebanon’s; there you n end up jail, beg forcefully admistered wh hormone jectns, if you are disvered to be actively gay and the thori ci that you need "curg" he also sensed a new revolutnary mood the air.

GAY BEIT - BEIT FOM

“And the gay muny is playg a big part that. ” Maybe Egypt is changg; maybe gay tours will be possible there there are plac that Bertho sists he will never go. ” The untry has the worst reputatn for gay rights the regn, and is very well served.

VERY VERY GAY IENDLY HAMAM - DAVUTPASA ISKELE HAMAMI

Until two years ago gay men were killed on the street broad daylight on a regular basis. Many gay Iraqis fled to Lebanon, and Bertho has heard their stori firsthand.

Nervo Wtern tourists, both gay and straight, are reluctant to travel to a regn soaked volatily. The next eveng I go for dner wh some gay iends om Damasc. It was so gay there.

WHAT PART OF THE MIDDLE EAST IS A GREAT GAY DTATN?

”Follow Hannah on Twter: @hannahluciMore LGBT stori om the Middle East:A New Film Explor the Gay Relatnship Between an Israeli and a PaltianGay Paltians Are Beg Blackmailed Into Workg As Informants. Gay bathho (or ‘snas’) are well rooted Wtern gay culture and many large ci of the world.

Beit don’t have any gay snas worthy of the name, however history left GiBs wh a somewhat siar thg: the Hammam’s (aka Turkish baths). I don’t know exactly who ed to go there back then, if really clud tellectuals and policians as they say, and whether the Hammam ed to have a gay or libertarian nnotatn at all.

But unlike the openly gay bathho abroad, Lebanon’s bathho have nothg nearly as explic as the closed cubicl, the dark rooms, the slg rooms and the gloryhol that are monplace elsewhere.

EVERYONE IS WELE: THE ONLY GAY HANGOUT THE ARAB WORLD

Until closed down a uple years ago, Hammam el-Sheikh near the Cola roundabout was the clost thg Lebanon ever had to a real gay bathhoe.

About Gay Beit.

GAY-REISEN LIBANON: SCHWUL LEBEN BEIT (INTERVIEW)

Gay-Reisen Libanon: Als schwuler Mann nach Beit reisen? Gays im Libanon: Wie lebt e schwuler Mann Beit?