Gay Moroc: The experience is very different for Morocns and foreigners.

Contents:

• MAKG VISIBLE THE UNSEEN QUEER: GAY DATG APPS AND IOLOGI OF TTHMAKG AN OUTG CAMPAIGN MOROC
• GAY AND G GRR MARRAKH - MARRAKECH FOM
• GAY DATG MOROC
• GAY MOROCNS OUTED THE MIDST OF RONAVIS LOCKDOWN
• WISNS MIDDLE SCHOOL FEATUR 'THIS BOOK IS GAY' LIBRARY, STIRRG ONLE OUTRAGE
• DOZENS OF GAY MEN ARE OUTED MOROC AS PHOTOS ARE SPREAD ONLE
• WHAT’S IT LIKE TO BE GAY … MOROC?
• GAY MOROCNS FACE BLACKMAIL, BULLYG AFTER THEY WERE OUTED ONLE

MAKG VISIBLE THE UNSEEN QUEER: GAY DATG APPS AND IOLOGI OF TTHMAKG AN OUTG CAMPAIGN MOROC

Alongsi other popular gay apps like PlaRomeo and Hor, Grdr appeals to s ers wh the promise that, by downloadg the app, they will be put ntact wh an unseen world of men-seekg-men that exists around them— their neighborhood, their cy, their muny—through the means of s lotn-based chat servic.

GAY AND G GRR MARRAKH - MARRAKECH FOM

In recent years, lotn-based gay datg apps like Grdr, Hor, and PlaRomeo have been ployed as tools for homophobic vigilant to “hunt” gay men orr to expose their sexual orientatn, to shame gay men ont of their fai and iends, and to m homophobic acts of vlence. In South Korea, screenshots om gay datg apps have been ed as evince ary trials implitg active-duty soldiers of illegal same-sex acts (Gzen, 2021) this chapter, I analyze a mpaign targetg gay, bisexual, and queer men Moroc which young women create fake profil on Grdr and PlaRomeo orr to expose or “out” lol men prumed to be gay. Footnote 1 In addn to facg potential crimal punishment on the basis of their sexualy, many Morocn gay men experience abe and vlence om the police, neighbors, and fay when they are perceived to challenge lol heteronormative expectatns of proper genred behavr (Ale-Ebrahim, 2019).

I argue that the sign featur of lotn-based gay datg apps like Grdr and PlaRomeo allow for the possibily of both sirable nnectn and unwanted exposure for queer men Moroc, challengg the misnceptn that the apps functn as unplited “safe spac” for queer timacy and muny buildg. Multiple actors Morocn social media works, workg alongsi the sign of the apps themselv, “entextualize” (Bman & Briggs, 1990) imag and text msag shared on gay datg apps as transparent ditors of same-sex sire, a “media iology” (Gershon, 2010) that prents risks for gay app ers Moroc. After he persistently refed to intify himself as gay spe creasg prsure om Talouni, she then displayed a photo for her viewers of what appeared to be the young man loungg at a pool wh an olr beard European man, prentg the photo as unniable evince of his homosexualy.

GAY DATG MOROC

In later social media posts, Talouni claimed that her tent wh this send livtream was to brg gay men “closer to the mastream society” Moroc by enuragg her followers to “thk of gay people as the man or woman next door and to stop the negative fantasy of who gay people are, how they look like and how they live” (Greenhalgh & Al-Khal, 2020). Dpe her claims, this send Instagram broadst rerc misogynistic, homophobic, and transphobic rhetoric Moroc that glorifi hegemonic heteromasculy at the expense of non-normative genr exprsn and same-sex sexualy. ” She go on to enurage her female dience to download gay datg apps like Grdr and PlaRomeo as tools to disver a salac unrworld of same-sex sire their immediate geographil vicy:Listen up, girls: Open the App Store, you’ll type [ the search bar] ‘gay apps.

All you women, girls, those who wear hijab who say ‘there is no hband like me [on the apps], ’ the mother who says ‘my son is the bt’ and curs and swears about homosexuals like me, who says ‘my hband is much more mascule than you, Sofia, you loubia.

GAY MOROCNS OUTED THE MIDST OF RONAVIS LOCKDOWN

Talouni giv tailed stctns for how women n easily create fake profil on gay apps like Grdr, posg as gay men orr to solic promisg rmatn about the same-sex sir of their male relativ and neighbors for future e blackmail and timidatn.

Talouni prents this as a quasi-femist act, enuragg her female followers to arm themselv wh an archive of digal evince pictg the shameful homosexual sir of the men their immediate social circl as a way to unteract potential future cricism of their own sexualy and relatnships. Dpe his own protts and persistent refal to intify himself as gay, Talouni succeeds outg him to an dience of tens of thoands by displayg a photograph of him loungg a pool close physil proximy to an olr shirtls man. What is important nstctg the young man’s gay inty this moment is not his own words but rather the publicly displayed photograph; is amed as physil evince of the man’s te hidn sir, a more tstworthy ditor of his ner homosexual nature and of his endurg ternal feelgs than his own verbal ttimony this moment.

Like a urtroom attorney simply prsg “play” on an dtape rerdg, Talouni tak up the footg of “mere nonspeakg relayer” of the image’s msage, enuragg her dience to let the photograph “speak for self” as a transparent ditor of the man’s past homosexual acts and his ongog same-sex sir (Matoian, 2001: 146). She simply prents the image as transparent proof that the man is lyg about his sexualy, darg him to ny what appears to be the objective tth reprented this image of him stg a pool, suggtively close to an olr beard man drkg a uy Talouni herself, the women who rpond to her ll to create fake profil on gay datg apps also teract wh digal imag and text msag as transparent ditors of hidn same-sex sire.

WISNS MIDDLE SCHOOL FEATUR 'THIS BOOK IS GAY' LIBRARY, STIRRG ONLE OUTRAGE

They lgh about how they had hoped to disver whether their ex-boyiends were secretly gay, g the app to “expose the faggots [zawa] among the guys our neighborhood” [kanqilb ʿala zawa dyal oulad rbna] sharg photos of nventnally attractive Morocn men wh handsome beard fac and mcular bodi, the women tend to huiate and shame men who might otherwise pass for straight by exposg their same-sex sir a public Facebook group wh thoands of members. They project a homosexual inty onto the men simply by referencg the fact that their imag were found on same-sex datg apps, makg an assumptn that the imag reveal a hidn tth about the men’s supposedly-effemate genr inty and queer sexual orientatn that is at odds wh their external mascule appearance. Like Talouni’s prentatn of the photograph as clear evince of the young man’s ternal sir her Instagram live broadst, the women who post the screenshots on Facebook prume a strong and transparent lk between a visual digal artifact and the hidn queer subjectivy of the gay datg app er picts.

Regardls of whether the men the imag would intify themselv as gay, bisexual, or queer, the imag functn as unqutnable evince of the men’s homosexualy sce they origate om a platform that is signed explicly to facilate male same-sex fact that Talouni and the women engage wh imag and text shared on gay datg apps as transparent ditors of same-sex sire and therefore queer subjectivy is not surprisg, sce this is an iology built to the sign of the apps themselv.

Gay datg apps like Grdr and PlaRomeo are signed to operate as technologi through which the exprsn of male same-sex sire is transformed to visible queer subjectivy, a media iology that Talouni and her followers weaponize orr to expose same-sex sirg men their lol muni.

DOZENS OF GAY MEN ARE OUTED MOROC AS PHOTOS ARE SPREAD ONLE

Grdr promot self as “the largt social workg app for gay, bi, trans, and queer people” (Grdr, 2021) while PlaRomeo scrib self as “an open-md and iendly home for every gay, bi, and trans person” (PlaRomeo, 2021). To exprs male same-sex sire through the apps is th ma to reprent an externalizatn of an endurg ternal sexual inty, foreclosg alternative possibili for men like Talouni’s terviewee who rist tegorizg themselv as gay, bisexual, or digal media rearcher John Cheney-Lippold wr, there is a gap between how inty functns virtual spac like Grdr and how ter ers unrstand their own sense of self (2017: 179).

The actns enuraged queer men to be very reful about what rmatn they shared on gay apps, to be skeptil of other ers, and, if possible, to temporarily spend g the apps until fake acunts uld be intified and removed. Another wave of rpons appealed to Instagram, Facebook, and Grdr as queer-iendly rporatns and ernance stctur, seekg a greater gree of ntent moratn and terventn on the part of the platforms to spend Talouni’s acunt, close down the harassg women’s Facebook groups, and alert Grdr ers about the ongog outg the first rpons to the outg mpaign were posts om Morocn social media ers seekg to spread awarens of the ongog events among gay datg app ers Moroc.

On April 14, a day after Talouni’s broadst, Associatn Akaliyat released an emergency alert on Facebook, enuragg gay men Moroc not to share any photos on gay apps, to lete their app acunts, and to warn their iends to do the same.

WHAT’S IT LIKE TO BE GAY … MOROC?

This illtratn ptur a sense of fear and victimizatn that many gay Morocns experienced as a rult of the outg mpaign, as if they were beg hunted and stng up by angry mobs takg photos of them and huiatg them public.

Social media ers work to facilate the circulatn of rmatn both wh Moroc—promptg dividual ers of gay datg apps to take specific steps to migate their personal risks—and outsi Moroc—vokg the polil and enomic power of thoands of queer dividuals om around the world to put prsure on Facebook, Instagram, Grdr, and other powerful global stutns to take actn agast Talouni and her Eli, a New York-based activist and wrer, was among the first major ternatnal figur to beg sharg rmatn about the outg mpaign Moroc. ” Eli’s ll to report Talouni’s acunt to Instagram echo siar posts shared by Morocn Instagram ers; both Eli and Morocn Instagram ers ask their followers to report the acunt by providg her handle @naoufalmosa and argue that Talouni’s ll to create fake gay datg profil directly rulted creased danger for queer Morocns.

As a mediator of sensive rmatn and imag origatg om gay datg apps, and due to the lack of legal protectn for Morocn queer dividuals, the anizatns ll upon Instagram as a queer-iendly rporatn to step and accept the moral rponsibily to protect s queer Morocn ers by upholdg their rights to privacy, digny, and physil safety. This provis further evince that all of the actors volved this suatn, queer and homophobic alike, unrstand imag and texts shared on gay datg apps as a technologil means of thentilly and transparently exprsg a queer subjectivy.

GAY MOROCNS FACE BLACKMAIL, BULLYG AFTER THEY WERE OUTED ONLE

Male same-sex sirg app ers, queer activists Moroc and abroad, and homophobic female social media ers all teract wh digal media artifacts created om data shared on gay datg apps as texts which n speak for themselv (Matoian, 2001: 146), as imag that n effectively munite queer subjectivy wh mimal explanatn or of the rpons to Sofia Talouni’s broadst and the women’s Facebook pag, om grassroots awarens mpaigns wh gay Morocn works to ternatnal media verage, work wh an iologil amework that unrstands screenshots ptured om gay datg apps as inic reprentatns of otherwise hidn queer subjectivy. Bee screenshots are monly unrstood to be a technology that ptur digal data both perfectly and exactly, and sce Grdr, PlaRomeo, Hor, and other gay datg apps are signed to operate wh an unrstandg of the imag and text shared on the platforms as visible maniftatns of queer subjectivy, screenshots of data shared on the platforms are granted a great al of ontologil weight the nstctn of tth about one’s sexual orientatn. Screenshots of gay datg apps are potent maniftatns of same-sex sire ma real and visible, immediately unrstandable, and easily orr to uphold the safety of the men who e gay datg apps Moroc, the powerful imag mt be refully managed.

Regnizg the power of digal imag and text msag shared on gay datg apps as transparent ditors of queer inty, Morocn LGBTQ activist anizatns and dividual social media ers attempt to lim who n view the imag by seekg to shut down the largt platforms on which they are beg shared.

In other words, they seek to terpt an tertextual cha of image circulatn at cril distributn pots by silencg Talouni and the women’s groups on Facebook; they hope to prevent more screenshots om movg out of their origal, relatively private ntext (the supposedly all-queer, all-male “safe spac” of gay datg apps) by terptg their cha of transmissn to unsafe public venu like Talouni’s live broadsts or the women’s Facebook groups. ” On Facebook, meanwhile, took over a month before the private groups created to share screenshots were fally activated and the posts addn to this story receivg verage om major ternatnal news outlets cludg the New York Tim and BBC News as well as gay-foced publitns like Pk News, The Advote, and TÊTU, this outg mpaign shaped how queer activists and social media ers the wir North Ain regn nceptualize onle data privacy and their relatnship wh gay datg apps. The succs of the mpaigns on Grdr and PlaRomeo to alert their Morocn ers to the ongog outgs have provid mols for other North Ain queer activists to operate wh the admistrators of gay datg apps orr to uphold the safety of the lol queer muni they Sofia Talouni affair dit that social workg platforms promote an iologil stance toward tthmakg and inty nstctn that privileg external digal maniftatns of one’s ternal same-sex sir over other forms of self-reprentatn.