Confn, exasperatn and datg apps – my month as a gay reporter at the Qatar World Cup - The Athletic

Contents:

• GAY PEOPLE LIVG UNR RADAR QATAR PREPARE WARILY FOR WORLD CUP
• CONFN, EXASPERATN AND DATG APPS – MY MONTH AS A GAY REPORTER AT THE QATAR WORLD CUP
• GAY DOHA TRAVEL GUI
• GAY MAN 'HUNTED' BY QATAR POLICE AND GANG-RAPED HOTEL ROOM AHEAD OF WORLD CUP
• GAY PEOPLE LIVG UNR RADAR QATAR PREPARE WARILY FOR WORLD CUP
• BT GAY DATG APPS 2022: WEBS FOR LGBTQ+ DATG
• DOHA - GAY LIFE - DOHA FOM

GAY PEOPLE LIVG UNR RADAR QATAR PREPARE WARILY FOR WORLD CUP

REUTERS/Fabriz Bensch/DOHA, Nov 19 (Rters) - A group of Arab iends livg Qatar's pal Doha met up over cktails and snacks last week, exchangg opns as they flicked through profil of gay men on datg apps Tr and phone of one flashed wh a msage om a suor around the rner. The man his 20s leapt up om the table, leavg to meet his date iends, who met up days before the soccer World Cup kicks off Qatar on Sunday, are part of a Doha gay scene that's managg to fly unr the radar a natn where same-sex relatns are illegal and punishable by up to three years of jail-time.

CONFN, EXASPERATN AND DATG APPS – MY MONTH AS A GAY REPORTER AT THE QATAR WORLD CUP

We go to the beach, " said another gay man, om the Wt, who has lived the wealthy untry for over a . "Rters spoke to four gay men Doha - the Wterner, two Qataris pl an Arab om elsewhere the regn - who said they lived the untry, a mag for foreign workers, bee they had well-paid jobs, pl iends or fay four spoke on ndn of anonymy due to ncern over possible punishment om thori. "It's not all sufferg, " said a 30-year-old gay Arab man who has lived and worked Doha for nearly 10 fact, the four exprsed worri about the wave of ternatnal cricism about gay rights Qatar brought by the World Cup, fearg they uld lose the eedoms they do enjoy should the opprobrium lead to a public backlash agast the LGBT+ muny once global attentn mov on.

GAY DOHA TRAVEL GUI

"The men prent jt one snapshot of life for gay people the Gulf natn - and the four regnise their relative eedoms are a product of privilege; they n afford to live alone, host parti and meet partners high-end rtrants or nightclubs, where the strict l of Qatari society are often more 's not like that for members of Qatar's LGBT muny have reported beg taed, some as recently as September, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said.

GAY MAN 'HUNTED' BY QATAR POLICE AND GANG-RAPED HOTEL ROOM AHEAD OF WORLD CUP

A Qatari official cricised the HRW report as ntag false rmatn and said the untry do not license or operate nversn Mohamed, a gay Qatari physician who has lived the Uned Stat for about a , weled the attentn the tournament has drawn to Qatar's rights rerd, sayg prompted him to speak out wily about his sexualy. 9 ln populatn, wh the rt foreign workers, rangg om low-e nstctn workers to high-powered four men terviewed by Rters said that there were strong fancial and reer centiv to ridg the untry, addg that life for gay people there was better than some other plac the Middle ced Sdi Arabia and Iran, where men have been sentenced to ath for beg gay.. I know gay men workers' mps wouldn't be able to live the same way.

"Qatari anisers of the World Cup have warned visors agast public displays of affectn but say that everyone, no matter their sexual orientatn or background, is wele at the the tournament, medil practners will not ask patients about their extramaral sex, relign or any other stat, acrdg to the Yoef Al Maslamani, the healthre spokperson for the FIFA World the 12 years sce Qatar was named host of the 2022 tournament, the untry has faced tensifyg cricism over s rights rerd on laborers, women and the LGBT furore has been fuelled by ments om public figur cludg former Qatar player and World Cup ambassador Khalid Salman who told a German broadster that homosexualy was "damage the md". One FIFA legate, Director of Football Agast Racism Piara Powar, stated  September that the anisatn would try to secure legislative change: “Qatar wants to host the tournament at the start of a new , they will want to prent an ternatnally welg face and wh FIFA’s help we are sure will be possible to w over the Qataris so that they e to le wh the rt of the world, cludg other untri the Gulf and Middle East and change the law on homosexualy”.

GAY PEOPLE LIVG UNR RADAR QATAR PREPARE WARILY FOR WORLD CUP

Human Rights Watch terviewed six LGBT Qataris, cludg four transgenr women, one bisexual woman, and one gay man. Further reports October claimed that Qatari police forc regularly e gay datg apps to entrap men, subjectg them to sexual and physil vlence before arrtg them.

It also reports the arrt of a gay man 2014 for alleged same-sex nduct. ILGA’s State Sponsored Homophobia report observed that while “technilly is possible that Mlim men uld be put to ath for same-sex sexual behavurs… do not appear that any person has been executed for this reason or at all. In November, an official ambassador for the Qatari World Cup scribed homosexualy as “damage the md”.

[Homosexualy] is haram.

BT GAY DATG APPS 2022: WEBS FOR LGBTQ+ DATG

In November, the Atralian footballer Josh Cavallo, who had recently me out publicly as gay, said that the fact that Qatar matas the possibily of the ath penalty for same-sex sexual activy is somethg he’s “very sred of and [he] wouldn’t really want to go to Qatar for that”.

Furthermore, the report stated that due to social and relig nventns, there were no LGBT anisatns, gay pri march, or gay rights advocy events.

The band’s lead sger is openly gay, and they received signifint public attentn 2017 after their display of support for LGBT rights at a ncert Egypt led to a crackdown agast the LGBT muny. I was a gay reporter Qatar for four weeks. I was fortunate, too, that The Athletic’s football edor is a gay man who felt the issue should be explored.

DOHA - GAY LIFE - DOHA FOM

And, this suatn at least, to be gay affords a blsg not granted to other mory groups: n be hidn. It meant tailg and unrstandg how and why LGBT+ people — and that bloody armband — beme one of the them of the here is a gay guy’s acunt of the past month, reportg the World Cup Qatar. Grdr, however, is more of a hook-up app and is often the most direct wdow to the lol gay muny.