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

Contents:

• EXPLORE VAST AND HIDN GAY TURKEY
• WHAT’S IT LIKE TO BE GAY … MOROC?
• HAVG A GAY OLD TIME TURKEY
• THE RABOW CRCENT: THE INTEGRATN OF THE GAY TURKISH COMMUNY GERMANY

EXPLORE VAST AND HIDN GAY TURKEY

Though homosexualy is not nsired a crimal offence (same-sex sexual activy beg legalised by the Ottoman Empire 1858), tolerance towards gay people is limed and s of vlence have been known to occur. As of 2016, followg an attempted up, the untry has been ntrolled by a religly nservative print, wh the rult beg ltle to no progrs the area of gay rights.

WHAT’S IT LIKE TO BE GAY … MOROC?

LGBT people are currently not protected by law, and Ankara meanwhile, a prohibn on all LGBT activy has been the bad news out of the way, remas to be said that travellers who act wh discretn, gay and straight alike, are unlikely to experience any trouble while Turkey. Fd the gay muny wh any of Turkey’s big ci, particularly Istanbul where gay life thriv the safety of packed dance floors, hidn bars and ever-prent hammam bathho. A mon startg pot on any self-rpectg gay Turkey travel erary, Istanbul troduc newers to all of the herage, all at once.

Turkey’s most open-md cy, Gay Istanbul n easily be found the area around Taksim but be reful when explorg lser-veloped areas outsi of the centre, the tradnal muny of Tophane for example where tourists may not be weled que so Dpa Galani2. While there is no overt Ankara gay bar, spots such as Bistro SAVOY and Sixtie Club draw a firm LGBT crowd as gay Ankara meetg pots.

HAVG A GAY OLD TIME TURKEY

As far as gay Izmir go, the cy is relatively liberal but due to LGBT rights Turkey, Izmir gay bar optns nstantly e and go. Check onle for the latt gay-iendly bars and clubs, and, if explorg the Izmir gay scene, be discreet on the street and aware that htlers and hookers may be operatg the area. Those lookg for gay Antalya may be disappoted by s lack of gay bars but thankfully there’s always a Turkish bath to splash about !

Check datg and hook-up apps for hts as to where to fd the Amasya gay muny, most likely wh the Turkish baths about | Photo: Emre ZaimogluWant to simplify luxury travel planng? 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.

THE RABOW CRCENT: THE INTEGRATN OF THE GAY TURKISH COMMUNY GERMANY

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. Seen this light, the se of Ray Cole n be said to be another part of the story of the wherg away of gay life Moroc, or at the very least, the end of turng of a bld eye to .

But what is more signifint about Cole’s se is that monstrat the te realy for gay men Moroc, namely, that while the laws on homosexualy are enforced nsistently, there is evintly a double standard employed their applitn. The lerature available to potential gay travelers to Moroc—of which there is a great al sce, spe of laws and social norms there, Moroc remas a prime statn for package holiday-goers om Bra, France, and Germany—is very clear settg out what is and isn’t acceptable.

Gay upl should rea om public displays of affectn and would be advised to seek out hotels and riads (a tradnal hoe wh an terr urtyard) known to be gay-iendly. The scen of Cole’s fay greetg him at Bra’s Gatwick Airport ntrast starkly wh how gay men are treated Morocn society: looked down upon, rejected by their fai, dismissed wh the Maghrebi Arabic slur zamel. “More than [Cole’s] own se, what happened to him shows how vulnerable gay Morocns are, ”Abllah Taïa, a Morocn wrer and filmmaker who now liv exile, wrote The Guardian, “They are at the mercy of anyone.