Travel Safety Report: 20 Worst Plac For Gay Travelers In 2021

Contents:

• CAN I BE GAY DUBAI?
• GAY MARRIAGE & UAE CTOMS ARRIVAL - UNED ARAB EMIRAT FOM
• PERIL AND PRIVILEGE: GAY EXPAT NIGHTLIFE DUBAI
• 26 MEN ARRTED AT MASS GAY MARRIAGE DUBAI
• THE UAE'S POSN ON GAY RIGHTS IS ACTUALLY SURPRISGLY PROGRSIVE – AND I SHOULD KNOW
• TRAVEL SAFETY REPORT: 20 WORST PLAC FOR GAY TRAVELERS IN 2021
• DUBAI FOR GAY UPLE - LGBTQIA+ TRAVEL FOM
• WHAT HAPPENED WHEN FOUR GAY GUYS FROM TEL AVIV TOOK A VATN TO DUBAI

CAN I BE GAY 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. Homosexualy⚢✖ Illegal (ath penalty as punishment)Gay Marriage⚭✖ UnregnizedCensorship✖ State-enforcedNon-bary genr regnnUnknownDiscrimatn✖ No protectnsEmployment Discrimatn✖ No protectnsHog Discrimatn✖ No protectnsDonatg Blood✖ Banned (fe ferral)Conversn Therapy✖ Not banned.

Homosexualy⚢✖ Illegal (ath penalty as punishment)Censorship✖ State-enforcedNon-bary genr regnn✖ Not legally regnizedDiscrimatn✖ No protectnsEmployment Discrimatn✖ No protectnsHog Discrimatn✖ No protectnsDonatg Blood✖ Banned (fe ferral)Conversn Therapy✖ Not banned. By The Numbers45% of Emiratis strongly or somewhat agree that beg LGBTI should be a crime32% of Emiratis strongly or somewhat disagree that beg LGBTI should be a crime23% of Emiratis neher agree nor disagree that beg LGBTI should be a crimeHistoryHomosexual activy Uned Arab Emirat? 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.

GAY MARRIAGE & UAE CTOMS ARRIVAL - UNED ARAB EMIRAT FOM

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. 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.

PERIL AND PRIVILEGE: GAY EXPAT NIGHTLIFE DUBAI

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. “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.

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. They are tellg their stori, buildg allianc, workg across borrs, velopg natnal and regnal movements, and fdg creative ways to bat homophobia and transphobia. They relied on a “bchery” law that had been ed the early 2000s agast gay men and transgenr women and was revived wh a vengeance followg the 2013 up, when the ernment, led by Print Abl Fattah al-Sisi, appeared to embrace persecutn of gays and trans people as a polil strategy.

26 MEN ARRTED AT MASS GAY MARRIAGE DUBAI

The majory of the terviewe intified as lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, or queer, while a few intified as heterosexual and cisgenr (see glossary) but were eply engaged activist work supportg LGBT people.

One terviewee, om Bahra, intified as gay but did not intify as an activist; he spoke wh Human Rights Watch about the relative absence of an LGBT rights movement Bahra.

The report also builds upon prev rearch nducted by Human Rights Watch wh LGBT activists and other LGBT people Lebanon, Tunisia, Moroc, Egypt, Kuwa, Iraq, and the Uned Arab Emirat, and on Human Rights Watch’s prev reportg on vlatns agast LGBT people the regn, cludg the reports Digny Debased: Forced Anal Examatns Homosexualy Prosecutns (2016); “It’s Part of the Job”: Ill-treatment and Torture of Vulnerable Groups Lebane Police Statns (2013); “‘They Hunt Down for Fun’: Discrimatn and Police Vlence Agast Transgenr Women Kuwa (2012); “They Want Us Extermated”: Murr, Torture, Sexual Orientatn and Genr Iraq (2009); and In a Time of Torture: The Asslt on Jtice In Egypt's Crackdown on Homosexual Conduct (2004).

THE UAE'S POSN ON GAY RIGHTS IS ACTUALLY SURPRISGLY PROGRSIVE – AND I SHOULD KNOW

[7] Egypt is a serial offenr terms of systematic e of such provisns agast LGBT people: a law prohibg “bchery, ” ially promulgated 1951 for the purpose of crimalizg sex work and then replaced by Law 10/1961 on the Combatg of Prostutn, has been ed by the thori sce the 1990s to prosecute homosexual nduct between men, rultg hundreds of arrts. Acrdg to one report, 127 people were arrted at an alleged “gay party” 2011, some drsed drag, spe of there beg no law that clearly punish beg gay or drsg drag.

However, Egypt, a provisn on “cement to bchery” the 1961 law on batg prostutn was ed September 2017 agast young people spected of raisg the rabow flag at a Mashrou’ Leila ncert, and agast other people who were prosecuted after g gay datg apps or chat rooms.

Acrdg to an analysis by the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr and Intersex Associatn (ILGA), laws regulatg non-ernmental anizatns Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Moroc, Bahra, Jordan, Kuwa, Oman, Qatar, Sdi Arabia, and the Uned Arab Emirat make virtually impossible for anizatns workg on issu of sexual orientatn and genr inty to legally register. In Libya, the overthrow of Muammar Qaddafi rulted a power vacuum which ias wield signifint power; several of them have nducted arbrary arrts of men on spicn of homosexualy. [31] The rise of the anizatn known as Islamic State (also known as ISIS), which killed dozens of gay men, as discsed below, has been creded part to s abily to “fill the power vacuum created by failg stat” the wake of the 2011 uprisgs.

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

Mubarak’s ernment had overseen a massive crackdown on gay men the early 2000s, tend part, acrdg to one Egyptian activist, “to prent an image as the guardian of public virtue, to flate an Islamist opposn movement that appear[ed] to be gag support every day. At the same time, some activists have raised ncern that a narrow foc on ISIS’ horrific anti-LGBT ab may distract om ab by ernments and their proxi who are also rponsible for homophobic and transphobic vlence.

In 2009, fighters spected of affiliatn wh Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi army, an armed group which publicly vilified gay and effemate men as “the third sex, ” kidnapped, tortured and murred as many as several hundred men a matter of months, most of them Baghdad. An Iraqi activist livg another untry the regn said that although he is “out” as gay to a broad circle of iends, he mt be ut when anizg events that uld out him more publicly—not out of fear of what might happen to him his host untry, but bee of what might happen if he is ever returned to Iraq. Torture sometim tak the form of forced anal examatns, which often volve doctors or other medil personnel forcibly sertg their fgers, and sometim other objects, to the an of the acced to fd purported “proof” of homosexual nduct.

DUBAI FOR GAY UPLE - LGBTQIA+ TRAVEL FOM

[58] Human Rights Watch also received reports of police Syria and the Uned Arab Emirat orrg gay men to unrgo forced anal ttg, but has not penntly verified the allegatns. Gay men and transgenr women have also scribed other forms of torture and ill-treatment at the hands of police officers and other members of secury forc the regn: beg beaten wh electric bl and raped wh an iron rod (Lebanon)[60]; police who “took off their belts and put them around our necks and ma walk like dogs” (Egypt)[61]; beg raped by police and then thrown out of a movg police r to the street (Kuwa)[62]; and beg hung upsi down om a hook the ceilg (Iraq). Human Rights Watch has documented such vlence Kuwa, where men sexually asslt transgenr women wh impuny[64]; Moroc, where people perceived to be gay or transgenr have been subjected to mob vlence[65]; and Iraq, where gay men reported severe beatgs and ath threats at the hands of their own fay members.

On September 22, 2017, several young people attendg a ncert Cairo featurg Lebane band Mashrou’ Leila, whose lead sger is openly gay, waved the rabow flag–a symbol of LGBT pri and solidary wh LGBT people’s stggle for equaly. The followg day, the Egyptian police, g a tried-and-te strategy of entrapment through gay datg apps, ma a “date” wh a young man whom they had already been chattg wh for a week and then arrted him, acrdg to Egyptian activists. [80] Members of parliament proposed a ten- to 15-year sentence for homosexualy[81] and a new law that would ban any “gathergs of homosexuals” or “homosexual symbols.

In 2017, there are dozens of LGBT anizatns operatg throughout the regn, workg on issu cludg homophobic and transphobic vlence, crimalizatn, forced anal ttg, legal aid, HIV preventn, genr equaly, media trag, digal secury, and outreach through the arts. Abdullah, a gay activist om Oman, scribed his first nference wh other LGBT rights activists: “It was my first exposure to other gay activists om the MENA [Middle East and North Ai] regn. In Libya, where a gay activist told Human Rights Watch that he only knew of two other people his untry that he would nsir to be LGBT rights activists, along wh about five other Libyans livg abroad, buildg muny is a prry—and the ter is regard as the saft place to do .

WHAT HAPPENED WHEN FOUR GAY GUYS FROM TEL AVIV TOOK A VATN TO DUBAI

An activist workg wh Chouf, a femist anizatn Tunisia that works wh women of all sexuali, said: “The femist movement Tunisia was not prevly gay-iendly, but ’s changed. Ordary human rights anizatns are absolutely unwillg to work on LGBT issu—eher bee they are aaid of the risk unr that law, bee they don’t nsir LGBT rights to be human rights, or bee they are also homophobic or transphobic themselv. A study published 2017 by OutRight Actn Internatnal found that Arabic language media tend to e “gradg and rogatory terms” when discsg LGBT people, equently ed relign to jtify transphobia and homophobia, and often ed accatns of homosexualy “as a tool to reputatns of dividuals regardls of the actual sexual orientatn of the person who is beg targeted.

In Oman, for example, 2013, state media regulators forced a newspaper to issue an apology after published an article suggtg that homosexualy is tolerated the untry, and 2015 they spend a rad statn after nducted an terview wh a gay Omani. We target people who see thgs [such as homophobic cints], but don’t ame as vlence, who are still plic, [ thkg] that vlence agast the kds of people [LGBTQ] is legimate and funny.