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. 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.

GAY AND G GRR MARRAKH - MARRAKECH FOM

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.

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.

GAY DATG MOROC

” 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. 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.

GAY MOROCNS OUTED THE MIDST OF RONAVIS LOCKDOWN

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. 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.

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

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.

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

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.

WHAT’S IT LIKE TO BE GAY … MOROC?

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.

GAY MOROCNS FACE BLACKMAIL, BULLYG AFTER THEY WERE OUTED ONLE

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.