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

Contents:

• WHAT’S IT LIKE TO BE GAY … MOROC?
• GAY DATG ISTANBUL
• GERMANY TAK BABY OM GAY FOSTER PARENTS AFTER TüRKIYE TERVEN
• EXPLORE VAST AND HIDN GAY TURKEY
• JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
• GAY TURKEY

WHAT’S IT LIKE TO BE GAY … MOROC?

In tradnal Ottoman practice, the termology of “gay” and “straight” was largely absence om disurse, as explaed by scholar Serkan Görkemli. There, zenn equently perform (whout a sexual element) for straight-intified male dienc says filmmaker Mehmet Bay, whose 2012 feature Zenne Dancer explor the iendship between an Istanbul zenne dancer, a German photographer, and a gay “bear” om the nservative Urfa provce. Back when Bay and his llaborator Caner Alper started rearchg zenne 2006, they saw as a “vanishg culture” – found only ral areas and a few unrground gay clubs Istanbul.

GAY DATG ISTANBUL

Even among Istanbul's sizable gay muny, for whom zenne dancg might have particular ronance, “people would rather watch drag shows or go-go boys. But the past half-, zenne dancg Istanbul has gone mastream: bolstered by the media attentn paid to Bay and Alper's film as well as the succs of gay crossover clubs like Chanta: which ter their zenne shows to a largely heterosexual, female clientele. When he was 15 or 16, a iend enuraged him to start dancg publicly, but the only work he uld fd was a seedy gay nightclub Istanbul's Aksaray district.

GERMANY TAK BABY OM GAY FOSTER PARENTS AFTER TüRKIYE TERVEN

Like many gay Turkish men, Segah found a gree of eedom Istanbul – wh s active, out gay muny – that do not necsarily exist outsi the cy.

While the Turkish ernment do not crimalize homosexualy – nor do provi LGBT dividuals wh any formal protectn om discrimatn – cultural attus toward homosexualy are largely negative; acrdg to a 2011 poll nducted as part of the World Valu Survey, a full 84 percent of Turks intified gays and lbians among their least sirable neighbors. And although Istanbul particular has beg creasgly welg to gays – Istanbul's annual Gay Pri para is the largt any majory-Mlim untry -- the risg thread of Islamism the Turkish ernment is slowg progrs for LGBT rights.

In 2013, Turkey’s prime mister at the time, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, cricizg the adoptn of a Turko-Dutch boy by a Dutch lbian uple, publicly lled homosexualy a “sexual preference, which is ntrary to the culture of Islam. The Turkish ary's approach to homosexualy reflects this cultural ambivalence.

EXPLORE VAST AND HIDN GAY TURKEY

Out gay men are nsired exempt om mandatory ary service on the grounds of mental illns.

In practice, they are often forced to provi gradg pornographic imag of themselv or be subject to a rectal examatn to “prove” their homosexualy.

“They realize [that I'm gay]”, he says but 's not somethg they ever openly talk about.

JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY

He rells only once beg heckled wh slurs by a homophobic dience member. Gay Rights. Jamaa el Fna, Marrakech’s ma square, is the cy’s primary gay cisg spot after dk.

GAY TURKEY

For those who heard about the se of Ray Cole—a Brish tourist arrted last year Marrakech, Moroc, on spicn of mtg “homosexual acts” and sentenced to four months’ hard time a Morocn jail prr to his early release— is perhaps difficult to image that Moroc was somethg of a gay paradise for whe men of standg the aftermath of World War II. Somethg of the gay scene moved to Marrakech, but suffice to say, is far removed om Tangier’s heyday and very much nfed to the margs. Gay life tak place the pths of certa hammams (Turkish baths) and the back rows of cemas, if people happen to know the right spots; needls to say, cisg plays an important role.