Gay Life Lebanon: Bounce Back Beit - GlobalGayz

Contents:

• GAY BEIT
• BEIT GAY DANCE CLUBS
• GAY LIFE LEBANON: BOUNCE BACK BEIT
• BARDOBEITMENUBEIT · HOTELSBARSDANCE CLUBSSERVICGAY MAPGAY RIGHTSBARDO
• MAPA GAY BEIT

GAY BEIT

> Gay Lebanon Gay BeitBeit is home to an ever-growg gay scene. Outsi of Israel, Lebanon is the most gay-iendly untry the Middle East. Although homosexualy is theoretilly illegal, the penal law is rarely ed.

Gay travelers Beit shouldn't face any difficulti, but public displays of affectn are ill-advised. Although not officially a gay club, B 018 attracts a gay crowd.

Beit’s world fame for war is fally beg overshadowed by s emergg reputatn as the (gay) party pal of the Middle East.

BEIT GAY DANCE CLUBS

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’.

Even gay life is boomg. The cy’s gay bars – even if most still prefer to be lled ‘gay iendly’– are thrivg. They have ma Beit a visible fol pot of gay tourism 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.

GAY LIFE LEBANON: BOUNCE BACK BEIT

“If the state knows a certa bar is a gay bar, they don’t re. ” The last time a gay bar was harassed by the police, Makarem relled, was 2005. 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.

BARDOBEITMENUBEIT · HOTELSBARSDANCE CLUBSSERVICGAY MAPGAY RIGHTSBARDO

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.

Still, I was loath to accept such a one-dimensnal image of gay life Lebanon. 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. Haig tells me that everyone the band has gay iends and ’s really not an issue.

Hamed Sno, the charismatic lead sger of the band, is of a rare speci: a publicly out gay man Lebanon. 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.

MAPA GAY BEIT

Many prenceived, Wtern ias about polil and relig attus toward homosexualy prove rather els Lebanon.

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. Recently, they ran a big exposé on homosexualy prisons.