Everythg you need to know about beg gay Mlim untri | LGBTQ+ rights | The Guardian

Contents:

• GAY RIYADH, SDI ARABIA | THE ESSENTIAL LGBT TRAVEL GUI!
• SDI MASS EXECUTN – FIVE BEHEAD VICTIMS WERE GAY LOVERS URT DOCS CLAIM AMID FEARS THEY WERE TORTURED TO TERROR NFSNS
• EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI
• SDI GAY SCENE: 'FORBIDN, BUT I N'T HELP IT'

GAY RIYADH, SDI ARABIA | THE ESSENTIAL LGBT TRAVEL GUI!

LGBTQ+ travelers are a lucrative market, acrdg to Darren Burn, CEO of Out Of Office, a luxury travel planng service for the muny, and of Travel Gay, the world’s largt LGBTQ+ travel platform. “In Dubai there are a lot of gay fluencers, and as long as you unrstand the ntext of the area you’re and rpect the tradnal culture and not show your queerns any way, you’re OK, ” she said.

SDI MASS EXECUTN – FIVE BEHEAD VICTIMS WERE GAY LOVERS URT DOCS CLAIM AMID FEARS THEY WERE TORTURED TO TERROR NFSNS

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. Before his trial began at the Old Bailey, Prce Sd b Abdulaziz b Nasir al Sd ma strenuo efforts to keep the qutn of his homosexualy 34-year-old prce admted he had asslted his manservant, Bandar Abdulaziz, but nied barrister, John Kelsey-Fry QC, argued the qutn of sexualy was irrelevant to the se and poted out homosexual acts were a "mortal s" unr Islamic sharia Kelsey-Fry said if the prce was outed as a homosexual he uld face executn his native Sdi Arabia.

Image ptn, Bandar Abdulaziz was an orphanChristoph Wilcke, a Sdi Arabia expert wh Human Rights Watch, said homosexuals had the past been executed but was ually for rape and he said a prce would be immune om urt the trial began, Mr Kelsey-Fry went to great lengths to strs his client nied he was a strg of wns suggted otherwise. "Two male rts, Pablo Silva and Louis Szikora, also gave evince they had performed sex acts on the photosAlthough the prce never gave evince, durg police terviews he sisted he was heterosexual and had a girliend Sdi Mr Laidlaw said this was a lie: "The fendant's keepg back of his homosexualy might other circumstanc, bee of the cultural background perhaps, be explaed away by embarrassment, or ed, fear. But, for young Sdi men, ntact wh the oppose sex is extremely difficult so there might be a temptatn to experiment before marriage, " said Prof Gse, om the Universy of said about 5, 000 Sdi prc get a yearly stipend of about $200, 000 (£126, 000), but some were "fabuloly wealthy" assltAn sight to the prce's bashfulns about his homosexualy was given by one of the rts, Mr Szikora, who scribed visg the prce for a two-hour "erotic" ssn three days before the said: "The man I met ultimately did want sexual massage but is like mixg Nigel Havers wh Omar Sharif.

We might also have the opportuny to e our platform to amplify their voic and to support lol anizatns workg to protect and advote for LGBTQ+ rights – however, this is bt done once you have left (and if you ri a gay-iendly untry!

EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI

In lands where acceptance of the vibrant hu of the LGBTQ+ muny is yet to see the light of day and beg gay remas unr legal scty, ’s of paramount importance for those brave, radiant souls planng a journey to be mdful of potential risks and adopt dispensable preutns. While may be a lamentable realy that Riyadh, a cy of splendoro herage and tradn, lacks openly gay-iendly acmodatns, is nohels home to a plethora of ternatnal and luxur properti ls prone to take issue wh their LGBTQ+ guts. It’s sential to unrsre that the luxur abos may not brand themselv as gay-iendly and uld potentially lack explic polici or practic fosterg a safe and clive environment for LGBTQ+ guts.

SDI GAY SCENE: 'FORBIDN, BUT I N'T HELP IT'

Acrdg to the kgdom’s relig police, the school was fed 100, 000 riyals ($26, 650) for displayg “the emblem of the homosexuals” on s buildg, one of s admistrators was jailed and the offendg parapet was swiftly repated to match a blue rabow-ee se of the gaily pated school shows how progrs one part of the world n have adverse effects elsewhere and serv as a remr that there are plac where the nnectn between rabows and LGBT rights is eher new or yet to be Afghanistan, only a few years ago, there was a craze for ratg rs wh rabow stickers – which Che factori were only too happy to supply. It wasn’t until the Afghan Pajhwok news agency explaed how they might be misterpreted that the craze me to a sudn on the ter and you will also fd pi of the “Rabow Qur’an” for sale – an unnscly gay edn of the holy book wh tted pag of every hue and remend on one webse as “an ial gift for Mlims” there are two sis to this cross-cultural misunrstandg.

Genr segregatn, which go to extreme lengths the more nservative Mlim untri, enurag homosocial behavur, creatg a suatn where men are often more fortable the prence of other men and where placg a hand on another man’s knee is a sign of iendship, not an vatn to sex. Historilly, Mlim societi have often acknowledged this – toleratg to some extent even if they the 19th and early 20th centuri, men who had been persecuted for their sexualy Europe often sought refuge Moroc and, long before same-sex marriage was dreamed of the wt, male-on-male partnerships were regnised – and marked wh a ceremony – the remote Egyptian oasis of some Mlim untri, whole towns have bee the butt of jok about the supposed homosexualy of their habants. In Egypt, for example, an old law agast “bchery” is often laws have a tastrophic effect on the liv of people who are unlucky enough to get ught but, spe ocsnal crackdowns, the thori don’t, on the whole, actively seek out gay people to arrt them.

In England 1952, there were 670 prosecutns for sodomy, 3, 087 for attempted sodomy or cent asslt, and 1, 686 for gross problem wh such laws, even if not vigoroly enforced, is that they signal official disapproval of homosexualy and, upled wh the fulmatns of relig scholars, legimise discrimatn by dividuals at an everyday level and may also provi an exce for actn by vigilant. Years before Isis began throwg allegedly gay men off the top of buildgs, other groups Iraq were attackg “un-manly” men – sometim killg them slowly by jectg glue to the reason for the paratively small number of prosecutns is the official fictn that gay people don’t exist to any great extent Mlim untri; homosexualy is regard primarily as a wtern phenomenon and large numbers of arrts would ll that to qutn. Some of the most btal Arab regim (Iraq unr Saddam Hse and Syria unr the Assads, for example) also showed ltle tert attackg gay people – probably bee they had other thgs to worry Syrian refugee Subhi Nahas wh the US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, durg an rmal meetg on the persecutn of LGBT people by Isis.

For those ught, the effect on their liv is tastrophic but the law is not much of a terrent and for those who are discreet about their sexualy the risk of arrt is the vast majory who intify as gay, lbian or transgenr the attus of fay and society are a much bigger one issue that affects all gay people – everywhere – at some pot their liv is g out.

Also, ’s clear that the prophet Muhammad never specified a punishment for homosexualy; wasn’t until some years after his ath that Mlims began discsg what a suable punishment might nmnatns of homosexualy, like those Christiany, are based maly on the story about God’s punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah which is reunted the Qur’an as well as the Old Ttament. Although Mlim societi today n be scribed as generally homophobic, ’s a mistake to view homophobia as a self-ntaed problem: ’s part of a syndrome which the rights of dividuals are subsumed the perceived terts of the muny and – often – matag an “Islamic” ethos. “Transgenr” is a broad term which clus tersex people (whose blogil sex is unclear or was wrongly assigned at birth), those wh genr dysphoria (who feel like “a man trapped a woman’s body”, or vice versa) and may also clu others who simply get pleasure or satisfactn om police e a water nnon to disperse LGBT rights activists before a Gay Pri para central Istanbul, Turkey.

There were also many who found the ncept of genr dysphoria difficult to grasp and some characterised her as a gay man who was tryg to game the affair rulted a fatwa om Muhammad Tantawi, Egypt’s grand mufti, which is still ced s across the regn today.

There are plenty of trans people who simply wish to be accepted as they are – whout surgery – and the Iranian system don’t really provi for, the difference between beg transgenr and gay is not well unrstood Iran, even wh the medil profsn, and there have been reports of gay men beg prsured to surgery as a way of “regularisg” their legal posn and avoidg the risk of executn. My Kali, a Jordanian magaze which aims “to addrs homophobia and transphobia and empower the youth to fy mastream genr bari the Arab world” has been published regularly sce far, no one has attempted to hold a Pri para an Arab untry, though there have been paras the Turkish cy of Istanbul sce 2003 (not whout opposn). Far om wng praise for exposg “the secret behd the spreadg of Aids Egypt”, the programme’s prenter was roundgly nmned and later ran to legal April, the thori Amman, Jordan, ncelled a ncert by Mashrou’ Leila, a popular Lebane rock band wh an openly gay sger, jt a few days before was due to take place.

Such was the outcry on social media that the thori rcd their cisn 24 hours later – though too late to reanise the ncert as origally the relig ont, prevailg Islamic views of homosexualy have been challenged here and there, but not on a sle that is likely to make much difference.