Gay expat reveals what ’s like to live Dubai where homosexualy is punishable by 10 years prison | The Sun

Contents:

• GAY EXPAT REVEALS WHAT ’S LIKE TO LIVE DUBAI WHERE HOMOSEXUALY IS PUNISHABLE BY 10 YEARS PRISON
• 26 MEN ARRTED AT MASS GAY MARRIAGE DUBAI
• HOMOSEXUALY: THE UNTRI WHERE IS ILLEGAL TO BE GAY
• PERIL AND PRIVILEGE: GAY EXPAT NIGHTLIFE DUBAI
• CAN I BE GAY DUBAI?
• TRAVEL SAFETY REPORT: 20 WORST PLAC FOR GAY TRAVELERS IN 2021
• HERE ARE THE 11 UNTRI WHERE BEG GAY IS PUNISHABLE BY ATH

GAY EXPAT REVEALS WHAT ’S LIKE TO LIVE DUBAI WHERE HOMOSEXUALY IS PUNISHABLE BY 10 YEARS PRISON

What is apparent though, is that there have been var s over the last 5 or so years that monstrate harsher treatment for foreigners and crimalizatn of homosexualy.

While is clearly a vlatn of human rights to crimalize homosexualy and promote discrimatn, there is a fe le between the right to be yourself and the importance of rpectg other people’s cultur. While is imperative that homosexualy be accepted the UAE, is also important for foreigners to be rpectful of the culture which they impose themselv – even if they disagree wh the ctoms.

The charg arose January and another man, MN was also charged wh prostutn, nsensual homosexual sex, pornographic material, cross-drsg and sultg relign. Ined, should you be unlucky enough to be ught engagg homosexual activy the regn, reports claim that punishment n range om 10 years prison, f, portatn and even the ath penalty. Dpe this, Dubai is host to a thrivg unrground gay scene, wh men flockg to unofficial LGBT clubs wh ltle fear of the nsequenc, acrdg to Detaed Dubai.

26 MEN ARRTED AT MASS GAY MARRIAGE DUBAI

At my publishg pany, I’m told no uncerta terms to avoid g gay referenc wh stori which — when wrg celebry, pop culture and fashn — was particularly difficult. On the surface ndns for gay Dubaiians might seem bleak, but thanks to some quickly acquired gay iends I learn quickly that, spe the legali, a vibrant gay scene flourish.

Enterg via an unrground r park on a Saturday eveng, my male iend and I enunter the uneven door polici that are rife throughout gay venu (a vague attempt to curb gay activy). Passg on that offer, I quickly meet an equally forward New Zealanr workg as crew for Emirat Airl (where a large portn of the cy’s gay ntgent work). Though I had a boyiend (an English expat) for the bulk of my time the cy, my gay iends played the field extensively and I know om their rpective tal that there was no shortage of actn.

HOMOSEXUALY: THE UNTRI WHERE IS ILLEGAL TO BE GAY

While Dubai has bee somethg of a gay Mec for Arabs om surroundg untri where there are even harsher views on homosexualy (you n’t get much harsher than the ath penalty, after all) gays the cy n’t afford to rt on their lrels. The hard le taken by Dubai officials has led to var reports of jtice makg ternatnal headl, but unfortunately, there are untls s of gay persecutn that undoubtedly still rema undocumented. WorldMore than two dozen gay Arab men face strict punishment after beg arrted at what police the Uned Arab Emirat scribed as a mass homosexual than two dozen gay Arab men face strict punishment after beg arrted at what police the Uned Arab Emirat scribed as a mass homosexual weddg.

Image source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Kamala Harris has been a vol supporter of LGBTQ rightsUS Vice-Print Kamala Harris who is on a tour of three Ain untri - Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia - has drawn cricism over her support for LGBTQ Ghana, a speech llg for "all people be treated equally" she appeared to cricise a bill before the untry's parliament which crimalis advocy for gay rights and propos jail terms for those that intify as lbian, gay, bisexual, or untry's Speaker Alban Bagb later lled her remarks "unmocratic" and urged lawmakers not to be "timidated by any person" Tanzania, a former mister spoke agast US support for LGBTQ rights ahead of the vis and Zambia some opposn policians have threatened to hold is homosexualy still outlawed?

In the same month, the high urt Barbados stck out laws that crimalised gay July last year, the urts Antigua and Barbuda clared a law crimalisg same-sex acts between nsentg adults Febary 2021, Angola's Print Joao Louren signed to law a revised penal to allow same-sex relatnships and ban discrimatn on the basis of sexual 2020, Gabon reversed a law that had crimalised homosexualy and ma gay sex punishable wh six months prison and a large fe.

PERIL AND PRIVILEGE: GAY EXPAT NIGHTLIFE DUBAI

Mozambique and the Seychell have also scrapped anti-homosexualy laws recent there are untri where existg laws outlawg homosexualy have been tightened, cludg Nigeria and 's parliament recently passed a law to crack down on homosexual activi, promptg wispread source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Campaign agast LGBTQ rights some Ain untri has tensified recent weeksAnd some untri, efforts to get the laws removed have May 2019, the high urt Kenya upheld laws crimalisg homosexual acts. And many plac, breakg the laws uld be punishable by long prison of the 53 untri the Commonwealth - a loose associatn of untri most of them former Brish loni - 29 have laws that crimalise homosexualy. Although the origal Brish laws applied only to men, untri that crimalise homosexualy today also have penalti for women who have sex wh Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn (Ilga) monors the progrs of laws relatg to homosexualy around the says the ath penalty is the legally prcribed punishment for same-sex sexual acts Bnei, Iran, Mrania, Sdi Arabia, Yemen and some northern stat of five untri - Afghanistan, Pakistan, Qatar, Somalia, and the Uned Arab Emirat - there is no legal clary and the ath penalty uld be source, AFPImage ptn, An Indian gay rights activist protts agast a urt lg 2013 upholdg a law which crimalis gay repealed the ath penalty for nsensual same-sex sexual acts observers note that the risk of prosecutn some plac is mimal.

For example, a 2017 report on Jamai by the UK Home Office said that Jamai was regard as a homophobic society, but that the "thori do not actively seek to prosecute LGBT persons". That is the qutn that LSE’s Dr Centner and his -thor Harvard’s Manoel Pereira Neto explore their groundbreakg rearch to Dubai’s expatriate gay men’s nightlife.

Their forthg paper explas: “Much of the Dubayyan gay nightlife tak place venu wh the cy’s p ternatnal hotels, which are technilly open to all who n afford them.

CAN I BE GAY DUBAI?

The rearchers wonred, at first, how so many men knew that the are events attend by many other gay men: “The were ed ‘parti’ – on a specific night of the week for different s – equented by gays, not bars intified as gay. Gay datg apps are also shunned for fear of entrapment by ’s this nstant sense of your hair standg on end and havg to be ut about who's listeng, who's at the door, who's ved, or what might be said and passed along, that uld get most such venu, the rearchers note that the mic played is rarely the kd of remixed, beat-heavy tracks or classilly “gay” songs that domate self-proclaimed LGBTQ bars across many global ci.

Only those wh the most cumulative privilege among a generally imperilled populatn of heterogeneo Dubai-based homosexuals would attempt to ploy this repertoire openly. As you might image, is private hom where Wtern gay men experience the most eedom to build a “more robt sense of belongg, tablishg supportive works that rerce their intifitn as both gay and Wtern, dividually and as a group.

Sce most pani arrange randomly assigned hog shared flats, is up to gay men to ask heterosexual flatmat to swch wh a gay ntact, so two or more gay men n habate and anise private and very selective social seekg some sense of home away om home... Reflectg on the signifince of the rearch, Dr Centner says: “In addn to brgg some attentn to this kd of existence, is also important to note how this is very much an expatriate, relatively privileged, experience of gay life Dubai. So, part of what we try to do is to pot out how, seekg some sense of home away om home, that the men are, advertently, unwillgly, or some s, que explicly, keepg out other typ of gay or queer people who are not ‘siar’ to them.

TRAVEL SAFETY REPORT: 20 WORST PLAC FOR GAY TRAVELERS IN 2021

“However, we felt that, ntrast to plac where even if homosexualy is not illegal, but there's plenty of vlent homophobia, everythg felt more on edge Dubai. This means that the more ual punishments for beg gay – beatgs, prolonged imprisonment, flogggs, torture, and chemil stratn – would be nsired to be gettg off lightly.

Firstly: The crime of homosexualy is one of the greatt of crim, the worst of ss and the most abhorrent of eds, and Allaah punished those who did a way that He did not punish other natns. We will quote some of what he said: Bee the evil nsequenc of homosexualy are among the worst of evil nsequenc, so s punishment is one of the most severe of punishments this world and the Hereafter. There are three pots of view: Abu Bakr al-Sideq, ‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib, Khaalid ibn al-Waleed, ‘Abd-Allaah ibn al-Zubayr, ‘Abd-Allaah ibn ‘Abbaas, Maalik, Ishaaq ibn Raahawayh, Imam Ahmad acrdg to the more sound of the two reports om him and al-Shaafa’i acrdg to one of his opns, were of the view that the punishment for homosexualy should be more severe than the punishment for za, and the punishment is executn all s, whether the person is married or not.

HERE ARE THE 11 UNTRI WHERE BEG GAY IS PUNISHABLE BY ATH

Al-Shaafa’i, acrdg to the well-known view of his madhhab, and Imam Ahmad acrdg to the other report narrated om him, were of the view that the punishment for the homosexual should be the same as the punishment for the adulterer. Imam Abu Haneefah was of the view that the punishment for the homosexual should be ls severe than the punishment for the adulterer, and is a punishment to be termed by the judge (ta’zeer).

Those who favoured the first view, who are the majory of the ummah – and more than one scholar narrated that there was nsens among the Sahaabah on this pot – said that there is no s that brgs worse nsequenc than homosexualy, and they are send only to the evil nsequenc of ku, and they may be worse than the nsequenc of murr, as we shall see below sha Allaah. E., that the evil nsequenc of homosexualy are worse than those of murr) is the fact that the se of murr, Allaah giv the next of k the choice: if he wish he may have him executed and if he wish he may let him off, but He enjoed executg the homosexual as a hadd punishment, as the panns of the Msenger of Allaah were unanimoly agreed, and as is clearly dited by the Sunnah of the Msenger of Allaah (peace and blsgs of Allaah be upon him) and there is no evince to the ntrary; rather this is what his panns and the Rightly-Guid Caliphs (may Allaah be pleased wh them all) did. ‘Abd-Allaah ibn ‘Abbaas said: The hight pot the town should be found and the homosexual should be thrown head first om , then ston should be thrown at him.

He cursed those who do a variety of major ss, but he did not curse any of them more than once, but he repeated the curse for the homosexual three tim.