For Beit's gay muny, chemil blast shattered a safe space

Contents:

• GAY BARS BEIT - BEIT FOM
• GAY LIFE BEIT? - BEIT FOM
• GAY LIFE LEBANON: BOUNCE BACK BEIT
• BEYROUTH BARS GAY
• FOR BEIT'S GAY MUNY, CHEMIL BLAST SHATTERED A SAFE SPACE
• GAY BARS & CLUBS - BEIT FOM
• GAY BEIT
• BEIT GAY MAP
• GAY LEBANON
• ISRAEL’S BT GAY & GAY-IENDLY BARS AND FéS

GAY BARS BEIT - BEIT FOM

I was tryg to set up a walkg tour wh a gay travel se Beit and got an ial quiry of tert to help, but they have failed to rpond to all my follow up emails.

GAY LIFE BEIT? - BEIT FOM

It drew 400 people and ran for hours as dozens of young Beitis, cludg Hamed Sno, lead sger of the ternatnally succsful Mashrou Leila, stood up to tell their g-out Grand FactoryThe gay sger and dancer Moe Khansa is big news, too: at the Beit Art Fair an Iranian artist’s portra of him embracg another man sold for $8, 000. Per Outsports, Maxen is the “first publicly out male ach a major Amerin men’s pro sports league,” wh WNBA ach Curt Miller, who publicly me out to the media as gay 2015, also a publicly out male ach an Amerin profsnal sports league. Is still nsired illegal, havg said that is mostly ignored by the thori reason beg is bee the natn is still ma up of religo figure that nmn homosexual practice, so they dont brg unwanted attentn to a topic that very explosive some untri and they simply dont want some fanatil group the regn targetg s cizens, the police will only act if u are mg an act the will disturb the publics morale, shaggg a public place or ench kissg some guy public, otherwise u should be fe...

Beit, Lebanon – In an enomilly troubled, nservative untry where homosexual behavur is taboo, a growg number of men are prostutg themselv to scrape together a livg. Hassan – who asked his real name not be ed – was forced to leave his untry after his fay found out about his homosexualy and threatened to kill him.

GAY LIFE LEBANON: BOUNCE BACK BEIT

The fact that one n anonymoly e gay social works such as Grdr or Manjam to meet clients a matter of mut – or look for potential on Beit’s gay bars, clubs or hammams – mak easier for the male prostut to stay safe and to keep their job a secret.

Before the vlence and stabily Lebanon turned them away, wealthy gay men om the Gulf untri were pecially proment, ready to pay up to a few thoand dollars – sh, jewellery or signer cloth – for a night wh an rt. The New York Tim’ travel sectn emed the cy the ‘number one place to vis 2009’, and, another article, raved about the cy’s thrivg gay scene, dubbg ‘The Provcetown of the Middle East’. Acrdg to Ghassan Makarem, executive director of Helem Lebanon’s gay rights anisatn (the first and only of s kd the Arab world), the ernment don’t object to this image.

At the cy’s two ma gay clubs, Milk and Acid, a mix of Lebane, Syrian, Jordanian, Kuwai and even some Iraqi men disprove any remag theory of cultural relativism. But acrdg to Bertho Makso of Lebtour, a Beit-based travel agent that promot gay tourism to Lebanon and anis very popular Bear Arabia events, that is exactly what his clients are lookg for. On a stroll across the universy grounds he explaed that the ‘gay’ song our mutual iend referred to, Shem el Yasme (Smell the Jasme), plays wh a tradnal property of Arabic poetry and lyrics: love is always directed to a man.

BEYROUTH BARS GAY

One rehg surprise is that Al-Akhbar, a newspaper that is half owned by Hezbollah, has ma homosexualy part of s reportg agenda and wr que posively about the issue. Another surprise reveals what is, acrdg to Makarem, a ser mistake on the part of the Wtern media: the assumptn that pro-Wtern polil parti are pro-gay. This was nsistent wh stori of a large flux of gay men om Dahiyeh the cy’s gay bars and clubs, and the experience of a woman who told me she got ls flack for wearg a miskirt Dahiyeh than the smopolan shoppg street of Hamra, where the men would ‘accintally’ bump to her and stare at her cht.

What was even more remarkable to me – g om a part of the world where Mlims are generally perceived as the most nservative and homophobic group society – was that a lot of people seemed to agree that Mlims Lebanon were more open to discsg homosexualy on the street (albe never the media) than Christians. Havg said that, when I ntacted the admistrators of the Facebook group lled ‘Gays of Dahiyeh’, took a que a b of persuasn to get them to talk to me. Whoever was I talked to, before he signed off he told me that the past few years thgs had changed a lot Dahiyeh and that there had been an enormo crease visible homosexualy the neighbourhood – he claimed that some 30% of the men were now gay.

FOR BEIT'S GAY MUNY, CHEMIL BLAST SHATTERED A SAFE SPACE

The same people anise very popular Bear Arabia-events twice a year: check They’re very knowledgeable and fun and have big plans for Beit: the owner Bertho Makso exprsed his visn to anise a (gay) love pri para the near future. The Gefor Rotana is one of the most nveniently loted hotels Beit, wh walkg distance om the Corniche (the seasi promena) and s beach clubs, the shops and rtrants of Rue Hamra and Downtown Beit, and some of the most popular gay-iendly plac town.

GAY BARS & CLUBS - BEIT FOM

Other plac to check out: Behd the Green Door (porn spired bar Gemmayzeh); Barometre (very atmospheric, very tellectual leftist Arab bar near the Amerin universy Hamra – great cheap food, too, and Acid (somewhat tacky, but still… you n’t miss the biggt gay club the Middle East).

Sr of gay men — most of them “bears, ” a term ed the world over for heavyset, hairy guys ually olr than 30 — were g om across Lebanon and the Arab world, as well as Argenta, Italy, Mexi, the Uned Stat and elsewhere. In his 40s, wearg a whe T-shirt and khaki shorts, Roberto said he was surprised by the br of Beit pared wh gay life Rome, and said he was gog to spread the word back home. ”While homosexual activy (technilly, sexual relatns that officials em “unnatural”) is illegal Lebanon, as most of the Arab world, Beit’s valy as a Mederranean pal of night life has fueled a flourishg gay scene — albe one where men n be nervo about public displays of affectn and where secury guards at clubs n terce if the good tim turn too isky on the dance floor.

GAY BEIT

But even more than the partyg, Beit reprents a different Middle East for some gay and lbian Arabs: the only place the regn where they n openly enjoy a social life nied them at, a 35-year-old gay man visg om Damasc — who, like many men terviewed Beit, asked that his surname not be published — said that only two close iends Syria knew that he was gay and that there were no bars, clubs or f Damasc where gay Syrians felt at ease.

“I thought I would meet other gay men at universy Syria, but didn’t happen, and then I thought as an adult man livg Damasc that would happen, but hasn’t, ” said Asu, who was nursg a club soda at Wolf, a gay-iendly bar near the Amerin Universy Beit. ”While homophobia is not a rampant problem Jordan, acrdg to Abdul-Azeem, a gay man om Amman, he has not found enough openns to start a relatnship wh a man.

BEIT GAY MAP

” Gay life this cy is still chg out of the shadows, to be sure, but seems to have veloped a steady forward momentum sce the end of Lebanon’s 15-year civil war 1990 — and pecially the lm that has followed the brief 2006 war between Hezbollah forc and have opened, and old on are to their fifth or sixth year of sponsorg annual parti and mic ftivals. Inter chat s like Manjam (), self-scribed as “a gay social work for datg, work and travel, ” have taken off; several gay men here had no hibns tellg me their Manjam profile screen nam.

And, by anecdotal acunts, gay men and women om other Arab untri and the Wt are creasgly vatng here — a choice that is all the more sexy and thrillg for some bee they feel they are livg on the edge and disverg a gay culture that is hly the mid-1990s, a few small f Beit beme popular gatherg plac for gay men — not only for groups of iends, but also for men who had chatted on the Inter and wanted to arrange a safe place to meet. One such spot, Café Sheikh Mankoh the Hamra district, also stalled puters that gay men ed to chat onle wh others Beit, Bertho the years sce, Lebanon has bee one of the most liberal Arab unti when to sexualy and sexual behavr, acrdg to Michael T. Luongo, the edor of the 2007 book “Gay Travels the Mlim World, ” which was translated and prted Arabic this summer by a Beit publishg hoe, Arab Diffn.

GAY LEBANON

(Travel guis to Beit are not plentiful, particularly on that might be helpful for gay and lbian travelers, but one eful publitn is “A Hedonist’s Gui to Beit, ” published by Hg2 Guis. )“What’s tertg is that the Arab areas that were once ntrolled by the French, like Lebanon, are the on wh laws agast homosexualy, bee the French felt fortable talkg about sex, ” Mr. In March, a 44-year-old gay man the Yemeni cy of al-Hisn was shot to ath, one of several gay men reported killed sce Beit, a wily publicized beatg of two gay men by police officers spurred the Lebane anizatn Helem — the most visible gay rights group of any Arab natn — to hold the first major gay rights rally the regn memory.

The rally, Febary, drew several dozen gay men and lbians, and straight iends and supporters, to a downtown Beit square, where they waved rabow flags and banners llg for gay rally — as well as Lebanon’s electns June, won by morate polil parti — has buoyed the spirs of gay men and lbians Beit, yet still they have hardly turned valier about their public behavr. Raed, a young gay man who works Beit, poted out that a police booth is loted close to Bardo, one of the most popular gay gatherg spots on most nights of the week.

ISRAEL’S BT GAY & GAY-IENDLY BARS AND FéS

”But Bassil scribed Beit as fairly relaxed about sexualy and said that his iends who me om overseas were routely surprised to fd “a shockgly big and open gay culture” there. OUT Adventur now books tours Egypt and Moroc, he said, and has been eyeg Beit for some time to terme if the cy is reasonably safe and sufficiently appealg for gay visors.