Tunisia Iterary: Thgs to Do In 10 days In Gay Tunisia

Contents:

• RENNTRE GRATUE GAY TUNISIE
• COMMENT çA SE PASSE EN TUNISIE QUAND ON T GAY ?
• GAY FMGAY FM
• INSI TUNISIA'S SHAMS RAD - THE ARAB WORLD'S 'ONLY GAY RAD STATN'
• TUNISIA ULTIMATE ERARY: THGS TO DO AND SEE WH 10 DAYS GAY TUNISIA

RENNTRE GRATUE GAY TUNISIE

Gay and Lbian Review. What I almost never saw om my seat at my favore hnt—the Café Paris, chosen bee, not attached to a hotel, always attracted more Tunisians than tourists—were any signs of a visible, easily intifiable gay or lbian culture.

While the gay visor particular might be thrown ially by the ways which two men or two women openly display their physil affectn—whenever we would cross the avenue together, for example, my iend Hs would grab my hand to make sure that I would not be n down by one of Tunis’s notorly reckls b drivers—and while the sight of a man walkg down the street wh a jasme blossom tucked behd his ear might (wrongly) suggt otherwise, open signs of Wtern-style gay inty are owned upon if not absolutely taboo. I found nearly impossible to spot any Tunisian I uld intify as gay.

COMMENT çA SE PASSE EN TUNISIE QUAND ON T GAY ?

Neverthels, same-sex sire, if not a gay inty, is certaly prent Tunisia.

In some s, this adolcent homosexual behavr is nsired a stage of life that will soon be left behd, so men who ntue the practice to adulthood—or, worse, who still prefer the passive role—are open to cricism, or worse.

GAY FMGAY FM

In more recent tim, however, as a rult of global media broadsts via satelle televisn and the Inter, Tunisians are regularly exposed to Wtern notns of gay inty. Though sometim clumsily censored, Wtern shows wh gay characters—like The OC or the Spanish Un Dos Tr, a Fame-style show about a performg arts school—are easily available via satelle dish, as are gay phone sex ads that ma me blh. We also sometim fet the ways which, even the Wt, gay style is munited through the media and “assumed” by as we figure out how to reprent ourselv to each other and to a larger heterosexual public.

As Tunisians who feel same-sex sire see more Wtern reprentatns of gay life, they’re likely to imate the ways of beg and actg, however nstraed by the nf of an Islamic social system. Bee a visible gay inty is often seen the Islamic world as a product of the Wt, is difficult to untangle a rejectn of gay inty om a rejectn of the Wt wh s profoundly different standards of public behavr and private moraly. Somethg to nsir, then, is the possibily that the tenncy of our media to portray Islam a negative light is makg harr for those Tunisians who wish to “e out” as pennt women, as gay, or as otherwise nontradnal.

The fact that gay inty is built precisely upon a public acknowledgment of beg gay plit thgs a society where, for example, men are so most that they shower their unrwear at the gym, or where, until recently, heterosexual upl uld not so much as hold hands public. Not surprisgly, whatever gay life that exists tak place vertly, while the life s more public forms is virtually nonexistent.

INSI TUNISIA'S SHAMS RAD - THE ARAB WORLD'S 'ONLY GAY RAD STATN'

Homosexualy, Tunisia Style: Where the Actn Is.

In Tunisia, the issue of gay inty is plited by the untry’s long history of European tourism, cludg sexual tourism.

Many of the men might be lled, a Wtern exprsn, “gay for pay. I equented the tablishment bee was one of the only plac Tunisia where I uld experience some semblance of a gay culture, but I had to learn to pe wh the daily proposns. (Aaid of where the nversatn might lead, I never disclosed to him my gay inty.

TUNISIA ULTIMATE ERARY: THGS TO DO AND SEE WH 10 DAYS GAY TUNISIA

In addn, I also had two Tunisian iends who self-intified as gay. His homosexualy, along wh his antipathy for relign of any kd and his awarens of the many ironi of his role as a universy profsor a police state, had left him, if not exactly jad, at least world-weary om a lifetime of knowg, but never beg able to say out loud, that the emperor has no cloth.

At this fé, where Jacqu met his rent boy, I saw what I would intify as the only visible signs of a gay inty that I saw: some young men nductg surveys about safer sex practic.

She wanted to tell me that she found my say movg and that my beg gay was not an issue for her. But she warned, “I also wanted to tell you to be reful to raise gay issu Arab untri.