Lebanon lnch Arab world's first gay pri week | Rters

Contents:

• CANNED CKTAIL ‘GAY WATER’ AIMS TO SH ON BUD LIGHT’S DYLAN MULVANEY DISASTER
• LEBANON LNCH ARAB WORLD'S FIRST GAY PRI WEEK
• REPORT: SWATCH GROUP SU COUNTRY THAT ALLEGEDLY SEIZED ITS GAY PRI WATCH
• GAY, STRAIGHT, OR JT LEBANE?
• DISVER THE 5 MOST GAY-IENDLY ARAB UNTRI
• GAY PEOPLE ARE RECLAIMG AN ISLAMIC HERAGE
• LEBANON IS KNOWN AS GAY FRIENDLY. BUT PRI WEEK WAS SHUT DOWN.
• LIBAN : L GAY PRIS

CANNED CKTAIL ‘GAY WATER’ AIMS TO SH ON BUD LIGHT’S DYLAN MULVANEY DISASTER

An entreprenr lnched a nned cktail this week lled “Gay Water” that’s aimed at LGBTQ drkers — and said he’s lookg to palize on Bud Light’s mistak. But “Gay Water” — which adopts a moniker the gay muny has long given to the simple vodka and soda cktail — has been spired by the dtup to bee even bolr about the dience ’s targetg, founr and CEO Spencer Hodson told The Post.

Gay Water — a nned cktail brand that plays on the gay muny’s lloquialism for the vodka-and-soda mixed drk — lnched on Wednday and promis to unrstand s dience better than Bud Light. The 30-year-old Hodson said he is g suggtive — albe playful — msagg and imagery Gay Water’s social media and webse, cludg a provotive nod to the 12-ounce n’s 6. “Our missn is to -stigmatize the word ‘gay’ and start to create reprentatn spac that tradnally don’t have queer-owned products, let alone products wh the word ‘gay’ their tle, ” Hodson told The Post.

Founr Spencer Hodson, a gay man, says the brand is about reclaimg the word “gay” as a word that “jt means happy. “Part of the pot of lnchg outsi of Pri month is to rerce the msage that Gay Water is here to make the LGBTQ+ muny more visible 365 days a year, not jt a sgle month, ” he said. The movie tells the story of an Algerian-French heterosexual young man begng a soclogy study of gay islamic homosexuali and disverg gay love wh a young French steward.

LEBANON LNCH ARAB WORLD'S FIRST GAY PRI WEEK

The batn of beg back his hometown, this prsure om his mother and his homosexualy him to have equent panic attacks.

Out Loud is the first film om Lebanon wh a gay theme that sets a new standard for cema om the Middle East the midst of the Arab Sprg. A documentary by Peter Barbosa and Garrett Lenoir, I Exist giv a voice to gay and lbian Amerins om the Middle East, who often rema silent out of shame and fear. Filmed 12 untri and 9 languag, this documentary, directed by gay Mlim filmmaker Parvez Sharma, tells the lorful and varied stori of gay and lbian Mlims om all over the world.

REPORT: SWATCH GROUP SU COUNTRY THAT ALLEGEDLY SEIZED ITS GAY PRI WATCH

This timate documentary follows a number of young Morocn gay men their exploratn of their relig and sexual inty. For a gay filmmaker, filmg Sdi Arabia prents two ser challeng: filmg is forbidn the untry and homosexualy is punishable by ath.

Enuraged by Sandra, Ama lnch a blog lled “A Gay Girl Damasc, ” reprentg a margalized voice the Middle East on polics, relign, and sexualy. In 2015, he me out as gay on Facebook, makg him the first openly gay man om Sudan, this a massive outrage the Sudane muny.

In this portra that is multi-layered both terms of form and ntent, a gay man nonts the ghosts of his past and explor hidn longgs, unrequed love and tormentg feelgs of guilt. In post-Fran Madrid where he lived an openly gay existence, his life rembled one long Almodóvarian y, full of excs and sexual taboo-breakg.

GAY, STRAIGHT, OR JT LEBANE?

After beg tranged om his fay for his homosexualy, we observe a young Arab man over four seasons and om far away as he navigat his solu – all the while attemptg to rennect wh his mother. A short documentary that tells the stori of Mashrou’ Leila, a Lebane rock band wh an outspoken gay sger, and Sarah Hegazy, an Egyptian activist. Between realy and animatn, the story of Nidhal is told, a young homosexual Tunisian who fend dividual eedoms Tunisia through his work rad.

BEIRUT (Thomson Rters Foundatn) - Lebanon this week be the first Arab untry to celebrate gay pri but the openg event a landmark n of ftivi was nceled after Islamists threatened Lebanon, a non-prof group promotg equal rights, was due to host a cultural event last Sunday as a kickoff to the entire week, but said was dropped by the venue after threats om the Associatn of Mlim Scholars Lebanon, a Salafist the gay rights movement has steadily grown Beit, homosexual acts are still punishable by up to a year Makso, director of Proud Lebanon, said the week marked a watershed gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr life, spe the threatened vlence and some lol opposn. TRAILBLAZERMost untri the regn do not tolerate an open celebratn of LBGT life, wh few Middle Eastern untri acrdg rights to gay, lbian, bisexual or transgenr cizens. Many risk f, jail and even ath, wh reports of social excln and abe hosts a gay pri para Istanbul each year and Israel holds a week of events Tel Aviv every events are typilly held durg June - LGBT Pri Month - or at a time that memorat a turng pot a untry’s own LGBT history.

Wednday marked Lebanon’s Internatnal Day Agast Homophobia, Transphobia and Bphbia (IDAHOBT) and the man who iated the tone pri week said was no cince. “I wanted to pick a symbolic date, a day that would be hopeful, ” Hadi Damien, who set up Beit Pri, told the Thomson Rters Foundatn by there have been anti-homophobia ralli Lebanon, the 28-year-old said he wanted to make sure the gural event did not foc on protts or repealg laws.

DISVER THE 5 MOST GAY-IENDLY ARAB UNTRI

”Polls show the vast majory of Lebane reject homosexualy but Beit is takg steps towards crimalisatn, wh a urt lg this year which a judge nced homosexualy is not a crime but personal choice. 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. The nned cktail is named after a lloquialism given to the popular mixed drk (vodka and soda) orred at bars by the gay muny.

“Puttg a product wh the word gay the tle is reprentatn self,” which he hop reclaims the word om the negativy ’s sometim associated wh. He thought of creatg Gay Water about a year ago while on a vatn wh his iend that had got a job wh the beverage dtry.

GAY PEOPLE ARE RECLAIMG AN ISLAMIC HERAGE

The two chatted about the limed amount of gay people wh , and wh Hodson burnt out om his tradnal day job tech, started the nned cktail.

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

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.”. For now, Gay Water is sold largely onle (wh a few retailers) and four sugar-ee flavors — watermelon, lime, peach and grapeu — at lnch.

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. 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.

LIBAN : L GAY PRIS

“There’s no greater reward than dog for the ltle Black gay boy who has someone to look up to now bee we didn’t have those people to look up to, ” says Phipps, reuntg a movg past experience where a preteen boy lled the duo his hero after seeg them perform. (Jason Armond / Los Angel Tim) (Jason Armond / Los Angel Tim) Through the Freaky Boiz’s high-energy live performanc and slick raps over stmentals sure to make you dance, they’re rvg their own lane hip-hop and treatg dienc to mic that highlights Black gay joy, datg adventur and wo and empowerg antiexploatn bops tailor-ma for the digal age like “Cash App. ”“They’re tryg to teach kids that beg gay is wrong and that’s phg 50 years backwards om the work of people who started the Pri para like Marsha P.