Gay Communy Integratn as Both a Source of Risk and Rilience for HIV Preventn Beit - PMC

Contents:

• BEIT GAY PRI EVENT A FIRST FOR LEBANON
• DISVER THE 5 MOST GAY-IENDLY ARAB UNTRI
• GAY LIFE LEBANON: BOUNCE BACK BEIT
• LEBANON'S GAY-IENDLY REPUTATN CHALLENGED BY AB
• LEBANON IS KNOWN AS GAY FRIENDLY. BUT PRI WEEK WAS SHUT DOWN.
• FOR BEIT'S GAY MUNY, CHEMIL BLAST SHATTERED A SAFE SPACE
• GAY AND GAY-IENDLY HOTELS BEIT
• GAY COMMUNY INTEGRATN AS BOTH A SOURCE OF RISK AND RILIENCE FOR HIV PREVENTN BEIT
• GAY BEIT

BEIT GAY PRI EVENT A FIRST FOR LEBANON

Instead of the ual gay pri paras seen the Wt, Beit Pri will clu an exhibn on genr fluidy fashn as well as a storytellg get-together centered on g-out stori and a gay-themed party one of the Middle East’s biggt night clubs.

There have also been a seri of secury crackdowns on gay-iendly night clubs and bathho, events that stirred sizable bate the natnal media. Through a haze of shisha smoke and somewhat stiflg sexual stigma, the Arab world unveils an unexpected realm of possibili for trepid gay travellers.

DISVER THE 5 MOST GAY-IENDLY ARAB UNTRI

If you n five the state-approved homophobia and are willg to act wh discretn while out and about, the Arab untri n reem themselv a thoand and one different ways, om the ancient centre of Petra to the glterg ephets of Bahra and to the serts beyond. While by and large closeted kgdoms, the handful of gay clubs the progrsive cy of Beit n allow you to be your te self, while the luxury ternatnal hotels across the regn n ensure your privacy is rpected. Wh so much do see and do, Mt is bt seen by tour b, allowg you to hop off at untls mms, the Sultan’s Palace and the Mutrah Corniche wateront, before venturg further afield on day trips to the beach and turtle-filled lagoons for divg and of the slightly more tolerant untri the regn, Oman is said to have once had s own gay sultan – Sultan Qaboos b Said al Said – although the state prs is quick to ny this as a pric mour!

Neverthels, the unofficial gossip is that the former sultan leads a lavish gay liftyle wh his palace, divorced om his wife and enjoyg the ocsnal English lover.

GAY LIFE LEBANON: BOUNCE BACK BEIT

In realy, the laws are rarely upheld except high-profile s, however, and gay Oman remas a perfectly safe place to | Photo: Katera KerdiPetra, particular, is the crowng glory of Jordan, protected wh sandstone cliffs and offerg an unrivalled llectn of monuments, cludg the fg Siq to the Treasury on an ethereal sert se of red rock and dun known as Wadi Rum2. Now you, avid explorer of gay Arab worlds, get to see the antiqui all their majty, movg om Roman Amphheatre to Csar stle wh a samplg of early Christian art along the way. Jordan crimalised homophobia as early as 1951 and while there remas social stigma and ‘public moraly’ laws that hr LGBTQ+ eedoms, gay Jordan gas tractn thanks to s unrground gay muny (most active on Grdr!

Gay Bahra legalised homosexualy 1976 though this means ltle as an LGBTQ crackdown is still force targetg those that supposedly vlate “public cency”, as Jordan. Tunisian society is viewed posively among the Arab gay muny for s LGBT progrs, as the base for anisatns such as ‘Mawjoud’ which mpaigns for LGBTQ mory rights. On paper, Tunisian law still stat that homosexualy is illegal, yet wh an openly-gay printial ndidate recently nng and ongog activism, ’s lookg more and more likely crimalisatn will e.

LEBANON'S GAY-IENDLY REPUTATN CHALLENGED BY AB

In a strange twist, one gay marriage beme legally regnised Tunisia and though that don’t say much for society as a whole, ’s a small w for gay Tunisia. Avoid the occurrenc and Lebanon will she, thanks to s fantastic beach rorts not far om the pal as well as s mounta vistas, ancient s and more, all urteoly attend by kdly Lebane social stigma rgs te and the ft array of Arabian gays is likely to be found onle (hello Grdr, my old iend) gay Lebanon is perhaps one of the few Arab natns where a tentative gay scene tak shape real life.

As well as hostg the regn’s largt gay club, POSH, where gay Arabs and ternatnals n fally dance together whout fear of persecutn, gay Beit also hosts annual queer events such as the Internatnal Day Agast Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia and Beit Pri. The New York Tim’ travel sectn emed the cy the ‘number one place to vis 2009’, and, another article, raved about the cy’s thrivg gay scene, dubbg ‘The Provcetown of the Middle East’. Acrdg to Ghassan Makarem, executive director of Helem Lebanon’s gay rights anisatn (the first and only of s kd the Arab world), the ernment don’t object to this image.

At the cy’s two ma gay clubs, Milk and Acid, a mix of Lebane, Syrian, Jordanian, Kuwai and even some Iraqi men disprove any remag theory of cultural relativism. That is to say, once si people don’t behave differently om any other gay club the world – wh the possible exceptn of the ocsnal male belly dance. But acrdg to Bertho Makso of Lebtour, a Beit-based travel agent that promot gay tourism to Lebanon and anis very popular Bear Arabia events, that is exactly what his clients are lookg for.

LEBANON IS KNOWN AS GAY FRIENDLY. BUT PRI WEEK WAS SHUT DOWN.

On a stroll across the universy grounds he explaed that the ‘gay’ song our mutual iend referred to, Shem el Yasme (Smell the Jasme), plays wh a tradnal property of Arabic poetry and lyrics: love is always directed to a man. Some prits are unhappy wh the official stance of the Catholic Church and have ved Helem to talk about the issue of homosexualy to their ngregatns. One rehg surprise is that Al-Akhbar, a newspaper that is half owned by Hezbollah, has ma homosexualy part of s reportg agenda and wr que posively about the issue.

Another surprise reveals what is, acrdg to Makarem, a ser mistake on the part of the Wtern media: the assumptn that pro-Wtern polil parti are pro-gay. “The New York Tim, which is supposed to be a ser newspaper, ran an article on gay nightlife that claimed some thgs that were absolutely ridiculo. This was nsistent wh stori of a large flux of gay men om Dahiyeh the cy’s gay bars and clubs, and the experience of a woman who told me she got ls flack for wearg a miskirt Dahiyeh than the smopolan shoppg street of Hamra, where the men would ‘accintally’ bump to her and stare at her cht.

FOR BEIT'S GAY MUNY, CHEMIL BLAST SHATTERED A SAFE SPACE

What was even more remarkable to me – g om a part of the world where Mlims are generally perceived as the most nservative and homophobic group society – was that a lot of people seemed to agree that Mlims Lebanon were more open to discsg homosexualy on the street (albe never the media) than Christians. Havg said that, when I ntacted the admistrators of the Facebook group lled ‘Gays of Dahiyeh’, took a que a b of persuasn to get them to talk to me.

GAY AND GAY-IENDLY HOTELS BEIT

Whoever was I talked to, before he signed off he told me that the past few years thgs had changed a lot Dahiyeh and that there had been an enormo crease visible homosexualy the neighbourhood – he claimed that some 30% of the men were now gay.

But whether he was jt scramblg back to the closet or not; the gay sex he reportedly admted to unr terrogatn had never been the issue. The same people anise very popular Bear Arabia-events twice a year: check They’re very knowledgeable and fun and have big plans for Beit: the owner Bertho Makso exprsed his visn to anise a (gay) love pri para the near future. The Gefor Rotana is one of the most nveniently loted hotels Beit, wh walkg distance om the Corniche (the seasi promena) and s beach clubs, the shops and rtrants of Rue Hamra and Downtown Beit, and some of the most popular gay-iendly plac town.

Other plac to check out: Behd the Green Door (porn spired bar Gemmayzeh); Barometre (very atmospheric, very tellectual leftist Arab bar near the Amerin universy Hamra – great cheap food, too, and Acid (somewhat tacky, but still… you n’t miss the biggt gay club the Middle East). The cy's liberal meanour really do make like no other place a eply nservative Beit has another si to that highlights this difference - has an unrground gay scene that is private yet very much alive.

GAY COMMUNY INTEGRATN AS BOTH A SOURCE OF RISK AND RILIENCE FOR HIV PREVENTN BEIT

'Obscene scen'However, recent events are said to have challenged Lebanon's reputatn as beg relatively tolerant of lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) year, a Beit cema was raid by police and more than 30 people believed to be homosexuals were arrted.

Image ptn, The raid on the CePlaza cema Beit last year sparked public outcryThen June, psychiatrist Dr Nabil Khoury went on prime-time televisn and told the natn that homosexualy was "a disease that needs to be treated" months later, censors blocked a screeng at the Beit Internatnal Film Ftival of a French film that featur a gay love story. The terr mistry ced a news report which attributed the cisn to "obscene scen of kissg between gay men, philanrg, naked men and sexual terurse between men".

GAY BEIT

"Even though the ernment strongly nmned and banned anal tts after the cema raid, the BBC has spoken to dozens of gay people the untry who strongly believe is still gog on.

'Culture of impuny'The Lebane Psychiatric Society has now publicly stated that homosexualy is not a mental disorr and do not require treatment, but mpaigners thk that is not enough.

Image ptn, Lebanon stopped classifyg homosexualy as a disease JulyThey want Article 534 of the Lebane penal , which prohibs "sexual terurse between two people that is ntrary to nature", to be mpaigners believe the article has been ed wrongly to prosecute homosexuals, but there is ltle sign that the ernment will act any time soon.

"The way gay and lbian people are treated by wir society, the ser abe, the torture and ill treatment to which they're subjected to police cells and tentn is wrong, " says David Mepham, UK Director of Human Rights Watch, which published a report June on the abe of LGBT people police ctody. "In untri like Sdi Arabia and Iran, beg homosexual n lead to the ath World Health Organisatn and many untri the Wt stopped nsirg homosexualy a disease years ago, and Lebanon beme the first Arab untry to do so July. Long journeyEven so, there are many the untry whose views are le wh the teachgs of Islam and Christiany, which are tradnally opposed to homosexualy.

Image ptn, Staff and ctomers at a gay bar Beit were not keen to be photographedSome gay people here are optimistic about the future.

They say the media is votg more time and attentn to the topic of homosexualy, and hope that this will help break down prejudic and stereotyp. But as I sat an empty gay bar Beit, I was remd how ncealed this scene is when the owner said: "I hope you are not rerdg any of this. Riwaq Beit Riwaq has a lightful sign outsi their space that says, “If you’re sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic or an asshole, don’t e .