An Emergg Scene: Gay Culture Jordan | Gilman Global Experience Blog

Contents:

• GAY JORDAN TRAVEL GUI
• GAY AMMAN TRAVEL GUI
• AN EMERGG SCENE: GAY CULTURE  JORDAN
• EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI
• EXPLORG AMMAN’S GAY SPAC
• JORDAN GAY TRAVEL
• GAY PRI MONTH IS A TIME FOR JOY, BUT ALSO TO REFLECT ON THOSE STILL BEG PERSECUTED

GAY JORDAN TRAVEL GUI

Rears stem om all across the MENA regn and Where do you thk Amman fs  among other gay statns the Middle East? K: A gay-iendly bar lled RGB (which quickly got a reputatn as a gay bar) closed after the owner received a msage threateng that if didn’t shut down, “all s ctomers will be put solary cells. Gay Marriage⚭✖ UnregnizedCensorship✖ Imprisonment as punishmentChangg Genr✖ Legal, but requir surgeryNon-bary genr regnnUnknownDiscrimatn✖ No protectnsEmployment Discrimatn✖ No protectnsHog Discrimatn✖ No protectnsMilary✖ Don't Ask, Don't TellConversn Therapy✖ Not banned.

Homosexual activy Jordan is Homosexual activy has been legal Jordan sce 1951, however, the Penal Co clus vague provisns around "moraly" and "cent acts" that uld be ed to target LGBTQ+ people. In 2014, for example, Jordan thori arrted 10 gay men and women who were holdg a receptn at a party hall.

While homosexualy is legal, there still isn't much of an out and proud gay scene Amman or the rt of Jordan. At the same time, seeg men holdg hands public is relatively mon – ’s a sign of iendship, and many Jordanian men are que appreciative of male bety even if they’re not gay, so may screw up your gaydar!

GAY AMMAN TRAVEL GUI

Even whout any tablished LGBTQ-specific venu, many of the bars and rtrants popular wh Amman's large ternatnal populatn of expats are there are some known hangouts for gay lols and visg tourists. Partly a rtrant, fe, bar, and lounge, Books@Cafe is the ** place Amman for gay lols, tourists, and expats.

AN EMERGG SCENE: GAY CULTURE  JORDAN

Thanks to tremendo support om the reigng Queen of Jordan, homosexual rights - rather than movg backward - are fally at a stable place the untry. As one of the more progrsive untri the Middle East terms of protectns for s LGBT populatn, Jordan is a relatively easy place to travel as a gay person, but homophobia fely still exists. While there is not a massive out gay populatn, there are multiple “gay centric” venu that ter to both the lol and ternatnal gay muny.

Forster went to Alexandria, Egypt, to have his first experience of gay love, and one of the most famo gay poets of the twentieth century, Constante Cavafy, also hailed om that sprawlg metropolis on the sea. Recently however, a lot of the great gay statns of the Middle East have not been gettg good prs. First, the unrt associated wh the Arab sprg has ma stalwarts of gay travel statns like Tunisia ls appealg.

Even hotspot Beit, long known for s excg nightlife and hunky men, has bee ls attractive as Helem, the area's only LGBT anizatn reports that Article 534 of the Lebane Penal Co ("sexual terurse ntrary to nature" is punishable for up to 1 year prison) has been ed recently to harass gay and bisexual sce the famo Nile Queen cint ( which 52 gay Egyptian men were arrted and 'examed' for dancg whout women partners on a floatg dis), Egypt is not nearly as open as ed to be.

EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI

Iran and Sdia Arabia, whatever their cultural appeal to tourists, rema difficult to vis and are known to execute gay men. S-led vasn has sce seen some of the worst gay-bashg and murr of homosexual men the Middle 's Left?

Like many Mlim untri, homosexual acts and cross-drsg are nsired 'sful' but they aren't technilly illegal.

EXPLORG AMMAN’S GAY SPAC

A gay uple n walk the street arm--arm or holdg hands while a straight uple would get dirty looks. "Amman, the pal, has some worthy attractns, most notably Roman s, pecially the Roman Theater (at night the cy's ma cisg area for gay men) and Jebel al-Qal'a, the ancient cal which clus s of a temple to Hercul, a mm, and the remas of an Umayyad palace, along wh stunng views of the morn urban sprawl of Amman.

You n fd them on any number of gay s, cludg Books@fe, a lightfully stylish fé that uld jt as well be Wt Hollywood, is full of betiful, mcular Jordanian men puffg away on their nargil (water pip). The cy's streets are filled wh shoppg opportuni: handicrafts and some of the bt valu gold jewelry the key to meetg gay Jordanian men is jt to be open and iendly.

If he is gay and terted, I have found that most Jordanian gay men are que direct, pecially if you make them feel fortable. Many of them directly seek out teractns wh foreigners, partially out of genue cursy and tert -- be prepared for a barrage of random personal qutns about your life back home -- and also bee many gay Jordanian men feel safer proposng Not MissAs far as sightseeg, the real treasur of the untry are beyond Amman. Royal Jordanian often has disunted tickets and has a ach-class like we ed to have on our domtic is not a typil gay statn like Barcelona, but is fely worth visg.

JORDAN GAY TRAVEL

Remember, tradnal Mlim societi do not necsarily fear homosexual sex acts: they fear a gay inty. But gay visors need to remember Forster and that, at one time, the Middle East was a relative refuge for gay men who faced jail-time Europe. However, medieval Arabic love poetry idolized the betiful young man; 1, 001 Nights has many exampl of homosexual liaisons.

So step back, take a ep breath, leave you prupposns on the plane, and open yourself to one of the gay-iendlyt closeted cultur the world. To the Wtern eye, behavrs such as hand-holdg and cheek-kissg often prelu to homosexual nuendos.

Based on pretermed ncepts of homosexualy, beg touchy-feely wh those of the same sex is tomatilly nsired “gay. Historilly speakg, homosexualy across the Islamic world was emed Haram (taboo) ever sce prophet Lut’s missn. Acrdg to the Quran (Islam’s holy scripture), Lut was sent to eradite homosexual behavrs across two ancient tw ci, known as Sodom and Gomorrah (near the prent day Dead Sea).

GAY PRI MONTH IS A TIME FOR JOY, BUT ALSO TO REFLECT ON THOSE STILL BEG PERSECUTED

It to no surprise to me then, that homosexualy and s acceptance across the Middle-East has wnsed ltle to no progrs sce Lut’s time. As a gay man myself, I often qutned my cisn to study abroad a regn where my very nate beg is openly outlawed. Dpe ner fears, I found fort upon disverg that Jordan is among the more socially advanced untri when to perceptns of homosexualy.

So much so, even legalized gay activy the early 1950’s,  parison to other Mlim untri such as Sdi Arabia, Iran, Sudan, and Yemen, where the ath penalty is still applied to members of the muny. Groups of homosexual iends n chat eely among themselv, absent of any societal judgement, ridicule, or discrimatn, as they enjoy a lic plate of wgs or a warm grilled chee sandwich. Beg the only gay male my study abroad program, I worried about fdg iends wh my own muny, on wh whom I uld share and relate experienc wh.

Although my time as a gay foreigner Jordan may seemgly glorify a happy-go-lucky experience, the tth is, many members of the muny here Jordan and throughout the Middle East ntue to rema closeted, and are reluctant to outwardly exprs themselv.

Like most Mlim untri, homosexualy, the posssn of pornographic material (even the privacy of one’s home), and the nsumptn of alhol outsi of approved venu is not exactly celebrated Jordan. Homosexualy is legal Jordan and the untry even has a small LGBTQ+ movement, but public displays of affectn (even between heterosexual upl) is owned upon. Acrdg to the kgdom’s relig police, the school was fed 100, 000 riyals ($26, 650) for displayg “the emblem of the homosexuals” on s buildg, one of s admistrators was jailed and the offendg parapet was swiftly repated to match a blue rabow-ee se of the gaily pated school shows how progrs one part of the world n have adverse effects elsewhere and serv as a remr that there are plac where the nnectn between rabows and LGBT rights is eher new or yet to be Afghanistan, only a few years ago, there was a craze for ratg rs wh rabow stickers – which Che factori were only too happy to supply.