Contents:
- IS PAKISTAN A GAY MAN’S PARADISE?
- 5 SAFT PLAC FOR GAY TRAVELERS IN 2019 (AND THE MOST DANGERO)
- OPEN SECRETS - GAY LIFE PAKISTAN
IS PAKISTAN A GAY MAN’S PARADISE?
“Homosexualy is very mon Pakistan, ” Saan tells me as the Mlim ll to prayer rgs out along the streets of Islamabad. “But homosexualy is mostly done by straight guys. This is bee Pakistan is a homosocial society, as Saan puts , meang that men n only go out public or socialize wh men, women wh women.
Some gay men scribe Pakistan as a paradise, where sex is always available, pecially wh men who intify as heterosexual. The man wouldn’t have sex wh gay men Pakistan, Saan not, bee he found them too effemate. Pakistani law clus provisns agast “obsceny” and havg “rnal knowledge agast the orr of nature, ” makg homosexual acts illegal, although the provisns are rarely enforced as the charg are difficult to prove.
Rather, is discrimatn, police blackmail and btaly, and their own fai that are the greatt threat to gay men. “The most a gay man has to fear are his parents and then his brothers, ” Ali says. Some gay men are able to e out to their fai and iends.
5 SAFT PLAC FOR GAY TRAVELERS IN 2019 (AND THE MOST DANGERO)
In Lahore last year, gay men had someone to fear bis their own fai. A serial killer began targetg gay men through one of the gay social workg s, killg three men between March and April 2014. When they’re not beg targeted or rejected by their fai, many gay men are forced to marriage.
Yet he still fac discrimatn whenever he is publicly perceived as a gay man.
OPEN SECRETS - GAY LIFE PAKISTAN
Once, when he took his dghter to hospal, they ially refed to treat her, sayg, “He’s a gay wh his dghter so go away. For some gay men, they are prsured to marriage orr to prerve the honour of their sisters. In Pakistan’s patriarchal society, if a man brgs dishonour to his fay by beg openly gay, he uld stroy his sisters’ chanc of a suable marriage.
The bt thg for gay men, Ali believ, is to be pletely anonymo Pakistan, as they’re ls likely to be nsired a relig threat. Bee beg gay is anthetil to beg a good Mlim many people’s ey, many nsir the prence of gay men a threat to society.
This is heightened for some by the perceptn that many of the more liberal, ted, middle- and upper- class gay men are also agnostic or atheist. “It would be a massacre Pakistan — open war, ” says G, when asked about the possibily of changg the laws to crimalize homosexual acts. It would make gay men visible and therefore a ncrete threat the ey of the untry’s relig powers, he says.