For Beit's gay muny, chemil blast shattered a safe space

Contents:

• DISVER THE 5 MOST GAY-IENDLY ARAB UNTRI
• GAY BARS BEIT - BEIT FOM
• GAY BARS & CLUBS - BEIT FOM
• EVERYONE IS WELE: THE ONLY GAY HANGOUT THE ARAB WORLD
• LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE
• GAY LEBANON
• BEIT GAY BARS
• BEIT GAY MAP
• POSHBEITMENUBEIT · HOTELSBARSDANCE CLUBSSERVICGAY MAPGAY RIGHTSPOSH
• FOR BEIT'S GAY MUNY, CHEMIL BLAST SHATTERED A SAFE SPACE

DISVER THE 5 MOST GAY-IENDLY ARAB UNTRI

Through a haze of shisha smoke and somewhat stiflg sexual stigma, the Arab world unveils an unexpected realm of possibili for trepid gay travellers. 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.

GAY BARS BEIT - BEIT FOM

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.

Jo as we track the 5 most gay-iendly Arab untri. 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 BARS & CLUBS - BEIT FOM

Much the way of the Sultan, gay life here is to be led unrground, due to the heavy penalti for homosexualy.

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!

EVERYONE IS WELE: THE ONLY GAY HANGOUT THE ARAB WORLD

) and annual events such as the Internatnal Day Agast Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.

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. 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. A clear wner for s LGBTQ eedoms, Lebanon is also hard to beat for s lively gay scene and diversy of spir.

LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE

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. Re: Gay bars Beit.

I was tryg to set up a walkg tour wh a gay travel se Beit and got an ial quiry of tert to help, but they have failed to rpond to all my follow up emails.

Wolf (), a gay “bear” bar Beit, most lively on Friday and Saturday nights after 10 p.

GAY LEBANON

gay bars & clubs. I'm a 31 yo good lookg mascule mcle gay man. Is there any good gay bars & clubs Beit?

BEIT GAY BARS

It is safe to be gay Beit?

Re: gay bars & clubs. Lots of gay plac 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.

BEIT GAY MAP

It drew 400 people and ran for hours as dozens of young Beitis, cludg Hamed Sno, lead sger of the ternatnally succsful Mashrou Leila, stood up to tell their g-out Grand FactoryThe gay sger and dancer Moe Khansa is big news, too: at the Beit Art Fair an Iranian artist’s portra of him embracg another man sold for $8, 000.

POSHBEITMENUBEIT · HOTELSBARSDANCE CLUBSSERVICGAY MAPGAY RIGHTSPOSH

Bar/rtrant Bardo, central Hamra, has tablished self as the epicentre of the gay scene, and is one of the cy’s bt-regard spots of any kd. Andrew Ahn’s father once told him that there were “no gay people Korea.

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

In a culturally nservative muny, where gog to church and buildg a fay were heavily emphasized, Ahn felt his gay inty kept him “om beg able to participate Korean culture. ” Then, he started equentg GAMeBoi, a weekly Asian Amerin gay party at Wt Hollywood’s Rage Nightclub. He learned to embrace beg both Korean and gay, so much so that he directed “Fire Island, ” a groundbreakg queer Asian Amerin rom- released last year.

Beg Asian Amerin and LGBTQ+ n feel lonely, wh stutns such as ethnic church often disavowg non-heterosexual relatnships while tradnal LGBTQ+ spac such as gay bars n be unwelg to people of lor.

“Fdg plac like GAMeBoi, where beg queer and Asian do -exist … It’s not like a 1, 000-year-old Korean cultural rual, but I uld create a new rual, ” said Ahn, a recent Friday, hundreds packed QT Nightlife’s monthly K-Pop Night at Micky’s, a Wt Hollywood gay club a block or so east om the old GAMeBoi posed for selfi a pk Barbie box wh dis balls hangg overhead. ” (Michael Owen Baker / For The Tim) Even historilly gay neighborhoods like Wt Hollywood or San Francis’s Castro district, Asian Amerins have long been ignored or fetishized, seen as feme and weak. In 2019, then-Wt Hollywood Mayor John Duran argued that he did not appropriately touch a member of the Gay Men’s Chos of Los Angel bee “he’s a skny Korean kid wh pimpl on his cheek.