Meet 'the First and Only Gay Tour Gui the Arab Middle East'

Contents:

• MEET 'THE FIRST AND ONLY GAY TOUR GUI THE ARAB MIDDLE EAST'
• GAY SYRIA 2004 - PERSONAL STORI
• THE BT GAY IENDLY HAMMAM ISTANBUL - ISTANBUL FOM
• GAY MARRAKH TRAVEL GUI
• CAGALOGLU HAMAMISTANBULMENUHOTELSON TODAYBARS & CAFéSDANCE CLUBSSNASMASSAGECY GUITOURSGAY MAPCAGALOGLU HAMAM
• MEET 'THE FIRST AND ONLY GAY TOUR GUI THE ARAB MIDDLE EAST'

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

“There were eight or ne hammams [Turkish baths] the Old Cy, and four or five of those were gay.

GAY SYRIA 2004 - PERSONAL STORI

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.

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. “If I was gog to do gay tours to Barcelona I’d have so much petn, ” he says.

THE BT GAY IENDLY HAMMAM ISTANBUL - ISTANBUL FOM

“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.

GAY MARRAKH TRAVEL GUI

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.

And he started lghg bee was so clear that there were no women and that we were a group of gay men.

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”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.

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.

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

“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.

“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. “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. Until two years ago gay men were killed on the street broad daylight on a regular basis.