Was Oman's Late Sultan the 'Only Gay Monarch' the World and Why Do People Care? | Al Bawaba

Contents:

• WAS OMAN'S LATE SULTAN THE 'ONLY GAY MONARCH' THE WORLD AND WHY DO PEOPLE CARE?
• GAY PEOPLE ARE RECLAIMG AN ISLAMIC HERAGE
• A GAY IMAM'S STORY: 'THE DIALOGUE IS OPEN ISLAM – 10 YEARS AGO WASN'T'
• LUXEMBOURG PM TAK ARAB LEARS TO TASK ON GAY RIGHTS AT SUMM
• THE ONGOG BATTLE FOR GAY RIGHTS THE ARAB WORLD
• MAJORY OF AMERIN MLIMS NOW SUPPORT LBIAN, GAY AND BISEXUAL PEOPLE
• GAY ARABS

WAS OMAN'S LATE SULTAN THE 'ONLY GAY MONARCH' THE WORLD AND WHY DO PEOPLE CARE?

Even though many onle mentators scribe the Omani Sultan's sexual inty as an 'open secret', homosexualy remas illegal the nservative gulf Sultanate and is punishable by law. Some activists argued that the Sultan's sexualy should have phed him to e out publicly, as his wealth and polil power uld have helped efforts to crimalize homosexual relatnships the Middle East. In the old days Mlims were que tolerant of homosexualyFOR DECADES regim the Middle East have alleged that homosexualy is both morally unacceptable and a Wtern import.

GAY PEOPLE ARE RECLAIMG AN ISLAMIC HERAGE

Back then, “you uld be wh a man or a woman, ” says the transgenr founr of north Ai’s first gay movement, the Abu Nawas Associatn, named after a great Arab poet, who was gay. In a regn where at least 15 natns crimalize homosexualy and those that don’t, there’s a “don’t ask, don’t tell culture, ” queer Arab muni may have been forced to the shadows but they unniably exist. Jahshan, who was raised a Christian hoehold, says he found “a lot of unrlyg Islamophobia and racism” the reportg of how those perceived to be gay were hurled om rooftops and stoned for engagg what the extremist group referred to as “sexual viance.

“Whenever I tell people I’m gay and I support ee Palte, stantly I’m told why don’t you try beg gay [there] and see if Hamas throw you off a rooftop, ” says Jahshan.

Khalid Abl-Hadi In his say, “My Kali – Digisg a Queer Arab Future, ” Khalid Abl-Hadi, a Jordanian artist and the founr of a pan-Arab queer magaze My Kali, shar a harrowg acunt of beg outed as gay by natnal media 2007, when he was 16. BEIRUT (Thomson Rters Foundatn) - Wterners shouldn’t be wrg the Arab LGBT+ “narrative”, activists said on Friday, even while appldg Luxembourg’s gay prime mister’s nontatnal remarks at a summ between European Unn and Arab League Bettel, speakg a closed ssn, lled out homophobia the Arab world by tellg the legat that his marriage to a man uld lead to his executn some of the natns reprented Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, this remarks were greeted wh “icy silence om some, quiet joy om others, ” acrdg to a tweet by a German journalist who attend the meetg at Egypt’s Red Sea relatnships are illegal across most of the Middle East and North Ai, and gay people often risk f, jail and even the possibily of ath, acrdg to the chary Human Rights Zeidan, executive director of Lebane LGBT+ rights group Helem, said is posive that LGBT+ issu the Arab world were beg talked about at big event - but he do not believe a Wterner should be leadg the nversatn.

A GAY IMAM'S STORY: 'THE DIALOGUE IS OPEN ISLAM – 10 YEARS AGO WASN'T'

“The ia that his remarks will make thgs worse for the LGBT muny the Arab world and for plac like Egypt is ludicro, bee thgs are credibly bad already, ” he Egypt, homosexualy is not explicly crimalised, but LGBT+ people have long been targeted unr laws on “bchery”, an Egyptian LGBT+ activist who cled to e her real name for safety reasons, was happy that Bettel took the opportuny to nont Arab lears at an event the global spotlight. A gay Qatari man, who cled to be named for reasons of safety, said the Arab lears should be held liable for their treatment of LGBT+ people, but Wterners, and Wtern lears should not be “drivg the narrative”. Islamic and nservative figur Arab society have also entered the discsn as never before, leadg to homophobic talk and attacks on members of the muny all over the untry.

Luxembourg’s prime mister, Xavier Bettel, has nonted Arab lears over the reprsn of gay rights, tellg them his same-sex marriage would nmn him to ath some of their nference room at a summ of EU and Arab stat fell silent when Bettel ma his statement, acrdg to a German TV journalist. Other untri the regn prohib same-sex acts, cludg Algeria, Moroc, Oman, Tunisia, Syria, Kuwa and some of the Uned Arab, which is spend om the Arab League, was not reprented at the ’s pot is unrsred by the treatment of the lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr muny Egypt, the untry that hosted the summ. After the Egyptian print, Abl Fatah al-Sisi, me to power a up 2013, he “appeared to embrace persecutn of gays and trans people as a polil strategy” acrdg to a report by Human Rights lears said they raised human rights wh their Arab unterparts.

Wterners shouldn't be wrg the Arab LGBT+ "narrative, " activists said on Friday, even while appldg Luxembourg's gay prime mister's nontatnal remarks at a summ between European Unn and Arab League Bettel, speakg a closed ssn, lled out homophobia the Arab world by tellg the legat that his marriage to a man uld lead to his executn some of the natns reprented Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, this remarks were greeted wh "icy silence om some, quiet joy om others, " acrdg to a tweet by a German journalist who attend the meetg at Egypt's Red Sea relatnships are illegal across most of the Middle East and North Ai, and gay people often risk f, jail and even the possibily of ath, acrdg to the chary Human Rights Zeidan, executive director of Lebane LGBT+ rights group Helem, said is posive that LGBT+ issu the Arab world were beg talked about at big event - but he do not believe a Wterner should be leadg the nversatn. "In my untry, the police raid that spired the birth of queer anizg and the creatn of Helem, the Arab World’s first LGBTQ rights anizatn, occurred a totally different untry – after the raid on the Queen Boat Cairo, Egypt 2001, " he said an terview wh the se Gay Star News. Delonize your own succs ️‍ thanks @gaystarnews— Tarek Zeidan (@tarekzeidan) January 18, 2019 "The first time a rabow flag was raised on Arab soil was not a pri para, " he went on to say, "but a massive public march agast the US vasn of Iraq Beit 2003.

LUXEMBOURG PM TAK ARAB LEARS TO TASK ON GAY RIGHTS AT SUMM

A gay Qatari man, who cled to be named for reasons of safety, said the Arab lears should be held liable for their treatment of LGBT+ people, but Wterners, and Wtern lears should not be "drivg the narrative. For every queer Arab who has formulated their sense of self by watchg ‘Will and Grace’ and ‘Paris is Burng’ are untls others who do not feel is unual to engage same-sex practic and rema unnnected to the word ‘gay’. Even amongst those who may feel at home their gay inty, the notn of publicly g out rgs hollow a culture where who you share your bed wh is a private everywhere else the world, sexual inti the Middle East tersect wh class, genr, and the plex terplay of private and public, makg impossible to speak of a sgular ‘queer Arab’ experience.

Tryg to wre about a sgular gay Arab experience would be, as one Lebane gay rights activist put , the equivalent of “wrg a story about gay life the US, and jt terviewg someone om the Wtboro Baptist Church, a closeted teenager Nebraska, and Adam Lambert. Imag and stori of opprsed Afghan women drove the ll to war 2001, and the more recent footage of ISIS throwg gay men off towers and enslavg Yezidi women stoked the fir of terventn Arabs face a dual stggle: we are battlg opprsive forc wh our own muni, and we are also ristg the global narrative that tri to e our “opprsn” for broar ary or polil qutn then be: who owns queer Arab bodi? But then a femist iend told me that Oprah propagat an dividualism that go agast the llectivist valu need to addrs stctural problems like homophobia and patriarchy.

Meanwhile, anti-imperialist crics like Joseph Massad argued that wasn’t the same-sex sexual practic the Egyptian ernment was attackg, but rather “the soc-polil intifitn of the practic wh the Wtern inty of gayns.

THE ONGOG BATTLE FOR GAY RIGHTS THE ARAB WORLD

“The are hardly maniftatns of gay pri or gay liberatn, ” he 52 men, their fac vered whe cloth, were further obscured as their liv beme polil srg rds: for thorarian regim, Islamists, wtern human rights groups and anti-imperialist amics. Neher the police nor the media paid any attentn to the multu of gay bars the more upsle neighbourhoods of rponse to the raids, Lebane gay activists released pictur of the host of the TV programme partyg a gay nightclub Mykonos.

I left bee I was tired of fdg ways to jtify why I had to keep my gay inty hidn, and I felt that my sexualy was beg yet another weapon that uld be ed agast me: if someone veloped a personal ventta agast me; if I spoke out of le; if I engaged the wrong kd of polics; if I was not a good cizen who shut up and took . Samir Dilou, the untry’s first human rights mister (and a member of Ennahda) ed an outcry om activists last month by sayg on televisn that sexual orientatn is not a human right and scribed homosexualy as a perversn requirg medil treatment.

MAJORY OF AMERIN MLIMS NOW SUPPORT LBIAN, GAY AND BISEXUAL PEOPLE

Amnty Internatnal quickly sought to disabe him, potg out a letter that "homosexualy stopped beg seen as an illns or a "perversn" by world medil anizatns and associatns s ago. He didn’t, for example, voke relig scripture to nounce homosexualy as one of the most heo ss known to man or suggt that gay people should be put to ath, as many Islamic scholars have prevly done. The "sickns vers s" bate is a faiar if futile one, but sometim a necsary step adjtg to realy — an attempt to fd some middle ground between moralistic rejectn of homosexualy and acceptance.

To those who n’t accept gay people the way they are, the ia of "curg" them n seem more enlightened than punishg them, and some societi have hovered for a time between the two. A seri of articl at IslamOnle (an Egyptian-based webse supervised om Qatar by the famo cleric, Yosef al-Qaradawi) provid what was claimed to be a scientific look at homosexualy, based on the ia that sexual orientatn is a choice which n also be "rrected". Its ma source for this was not Islamic teachg but the Natnal Associatn for Rearch and Therapy of Homosexualy (NARTH), a ge psychiatric anizatn the Uned Stat which promot "sexual reorientatn therapy.

Gay rights the Middle East are not simply about gay people; they are timately bound up wh qutns of personal liberty, the proper role of ernments, and the fluence of relign. Crimalizatn of homosexualy, for example, reflects abhorrence of the act but also a philosophy of ernment that seeks to regulate people’s behavr matters that ought to be no ncern of the state.

GAY ARABS

As far as relig attus to homosexualy are ncerned, the bat Islam are very siar to those Christiany and largely boil down to a qutn of how believers terpret the scripture.

As a child terrified about the very real repercsns that would e om beg found out as gay, Arab mic was my forbidn u at faial events, temptg me to reveal myself and th ensure my a kid, I was particularly obssed wh the mic of Umm Kulthum, the 20th-century Egyptian sger whose vols hypnotised the Arab world wh their yearng gravas. Out went the Umm Kulthum CD om the budget Walkman, and went the nsirably ls poetic I started htg gay clubs at 18, was the soundtrack of Madonna, Diana Ross and Lady Gaga that allowed me to move my body a more natural way, whout the fear of faial judgment.