Confn, exasperatn and datg apps – my month as a gay reporter at the Qatar World Cup - The Athletic

Contents:

• GAY MAN 'HUNTED' BY QATAR POLICE AND GANG-RAPED HOTEL ROOM AHEAD OF WORLD CUP
• BEG GAY DOHA
• GAY DOHA TRAVEL GUI
• GAY LIFE QATAR
• GAY PEOPLE LIVG UNR RADAR QATAR PREPARE WARILY FOR WORLD CUP
• CONFN, EXASPERATN AND DATG APPS – MY MONTH AS A GAY REPORTER AT THE QATAR WORLD CUP
• GAY QATARIS PHYSILLY ABED THEN RECED AS AGENTS, MPAIGNER SAYS
• GAY PHILIPP: QUEER CULTURE, LOL LIFE, AND WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW! ??
• ‘QATARI OFFICIALS GANG RAPED ME FOR BEG GAY’: THE TTH ABOUT HOW THE WORLD CUP HOSTS TREAT LGBT PEOPLE
• GAY QATAR NEWS & REPORTS

GAY MAN 'HUNTED' BY QATAR POLICE AND GANG-RAPED HOTEL ROOM AHEAD OF WORLD CUP

In the months sce, Mohamed lnched the non-prof Alwan Foundatn to advance LGBTQ+ rights across the Middle East and pecially Qatar, where he says that secury operativ filtrate gay muni orr to torture and erce members to rm on others.

There are some people om really affluent fai that are gay and ’s almost public knowledge—but they’re really wealthy, affluent, and very nnected, so people jt don’t say anythg. The World Cup will start jt two weeks' time, spe grave ncerns over Qatar's rerd on human rights, wh the Middle East untry ntug to persecute the LGBT+ munyA gay man has claimed he was hunted by police ahead of the upg World CupA gay man who has prevly livg Qatar has claimed he was 'hunted' by the untry's police force before beg gang-raped a hotel room. One of the biggt ncerns about the Middle East untry is s laws which outlaw homosexualy, wh LGBT+ people the untry at risk of imprisonment or even the ath penalty.

One gay man om the Philipp who worked Qatar as an office assistant, has told how he was lured to a hotel and gang-raped by police. The police officers then searched his bag, accg him of beg a prostute, before another gay man arrived after also beg lured to a hotel. (Beit) – Qatar Preventive Secury Department forc have arbrarily arrted lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) people and subjected them to ill-treatment tentn, Human Rights Watch said today.

BEG GAY DOHA

A Qatari gay man who has experienced ernment reprsn, cludg arbrary arrt, said that secury forc surveilled and arrted him based on his onle activy. The biggt public kerfluffle about homosexualy Qatar recent years has not ncerned any gay executns, wch hunts, persecutn or mands for gay marriage. Completely overlookg the social impact of such a huge ternatnal event such a ty Islamic place as Qatar FIFA got self to hot water om human rights anizatns as well as gay rights associatns.

However, homosexualy is illegal Qatar and n be punished wh lash and jail, which offends the progrsive agenda of rights groups the Wt.

GAY DOHA TRAVEL GUI

It is unavoidable that a clash of cultur will occur; a llisn of east-vers-wt agast Qatar’s tightly bound sexual and social standards, both straight and gay.

GAY LIFE QATAR

The UK gay football group, The Jt Campaign, as well as activist John Ameechi, said was eply ncerned: “spe their apparent mment to humanarian valu and the promotn of global solidary through football, FIFA is sendg out a msage loud and clear that the rights of the global LGBT muny do not even register on their agenda… Sport should never be allowed to tmp human rights.

) by subsequent ments by the FIFA Print Sepp Blatter who tried to mimize the ncerns of the gay football fans worldwi by sayg that gays, to avoid trouble, should simply not have sex while Qatar: “homosexual fans should rea om any sexual activi that are illegal Qatar”.

GAY PEOPLE LIVG UNR RADAR QATAR PREPARE WARILY FOR WORLD CUP

However, even if a gay person is most and discreet he (unlikely she) may be targeted by foul-md lol Qatari men for any number of reasons such as blackmail, money, sexual abe or relig enmy.

For foreigners, beg sgle over the age of 30 is a spic cue; drsg wh some fashn, beg well groomed, sg at others, beg gentle and pole n be nsted as gay tras.

In the mid-2000’s a Fnish gay man was sced and eventually entrapped by a “geo” Qatari man who at first offered him alhol then hashish and eventually sex–“many tim”. Later I got to know that the police were all the time behd him, dictatg his actns, so I thk was bee of my gay orientatn I was arrted. There are no gay plac here, except one, and my opn, we n’t say that ’s really gay bee ’s the only place where guys n enter whout girls, and a lot of straight guys go there as well.

CONFN, EXASPERATN AND DATG APPS – MY MONTH AS A GAY REPORTER AT THE QATAR WORLD CUP

“In Jordan, I knew many people and 90% of my iends were gay, but here, after a long time, I have succeed fdg only one gay iend whom I have met and stayed touch wh by the phone. Speakg here is a gay heart yearng to be ee yet tied to forbiddg circumstanc that are likely to nfe and fe his entire life cludg marriage to someone he n’t fully love, producg some offsprg and warg a mask behd a closed door to thentic love and timacy.

In 2004 a potential sndal was supprsed and th avoid when the Qatar’s 25 year old Crown Prce Tamim B Hamad Al-Thani was allegedly seen at a London gay bar and was volved an altertn. To make this suatn even more bizarre, the prs quoted Dr Yuf al-Qaradawi, a Mlim fundamentalist scholar based Qatar, as sayg homosexual behavr is servg of rporal punishment cludg beg stoned to ath. ” Obvly homosexualy is among the viatns Qatar although the universy has sisted that human rights would be rpected any of their operatns and programs.

Another dark si of hidn homosexualy Qatar is revealed recent reports of sex-traffickg of poor gay Kenyan male stunts who have been lured to Qatar wh the promise of good jobs only to fd they’ve bee entrapped by wealthy Qatar lols to e for their sexual pleasure. The New York-based rights group terviewed six LGBTQ+ Qataris, cludg four transgenr women, one bisexual woman and one gay man, who documented severe beatgs and sexual harassment police ctody om 2019 until as recently as September, jt weeks before the Gulf state hosts the World Cup.

GAY QATARIS PHYSILLY ABED THEN RECED AS AGENTS, MPAIGNER SAYS

In November the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup opens Qatar, a untry that reprs the rights of lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr people and punish same-sex relatns wh up to seven years prison.

GAY PHILIPP: QUEER CULTURE, LOL LIFE, AND WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW! ??

It found that only 33 did not object to bookg same-sex upl, while 20 others said that “they would acmodate same-sex upl as long as they did not publicly show that they were gay.

REUTERS/Fabriz Bensch/DOHA, Nov 19 (Rters) - A group of Arab iends livg Qatar's pal Doha met up over cktails and snacks last week, exchangg opns as they flicked through profil of gay men on datg apps Tr and phone of one flashed wh a msage om a suor around the rner. The man his 20s leapt up om the table, leavg to meet his date iends, who met up days before the soccer World Cup kicks off Qatar on Sunday, are part of a Doha gay scene that's managg to fly unr the radar a natn where same-sex relatns are illegal and punishable by up to three years of jail-time.

"Rters spoke to four gay men Doha - the Wterner, two Qataris pl an Arab om elsewhere the regn - who said they lived the untry, a mag for foreign workers, bee they had well-paid jobs, pl iends or fay four spoke on ndn of anonymy due to ncern over possible punishment om thori. "It's not all sufferg, " said a 30-year-old gay Arab man who has lived and worked Doha for nearly 10 fact, the four exprsed worri about the wave of ternatnal cricism about gay rights Qatar brought by the World Cup, fearg they uld lose the eedoms they do enjoy should the opprobrium lead to a public backlash agast the LGBT+ muny once global attentn mov on. "The men prent jt one snapshot of life for gay people the Gulf natn - and the four regnise their relative eedoms are a product of privilege; they n afford to live alone, host parti and meet partners high-end rtrants or nightclubs, where the strict l of Qatari society are often more 's not like that for members of Qatar's LGBT muny have reported beg taed, some as recently as September, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said.

‘QATARI OFFICIALS GANG RAPED ME FOR BEG GAY’: THE TTH ABOUT HOW THE WORLD CUP HOSTS TREAT LGBT PEOPLE

A Qatari official cricised the HRW report as ntag false rmatn and said the untry do not license or operate nversn Mohamed, a gay Qatari physician who has lived the Uned Stat for about a , weled the attentn the tournament has drawn to Qatar's rights rerd, sayg prompted him to speak out wily about his sexualy. 9 ln populatn, wh the rt foreign workers, rangg om low-e nstctn workers to high-powered four men terviewed by Rters said that there were strong fancial and reer centiv to ridg the untry, addg that life for gay people there was better than some other plac the Middle ced Sdi Arabia and Iran, where men have been sentenced to ath for beg gay..

"Qatari anisers of the World Cup have warned visors agast public displays of affectn but say that everyone, no matter their sexual orientatn or background, is wele at the the tournament, medil practners will not ask patients about their extramaral sex, relign or any other stat, acrdg to the Yoef Al Maslamani, the healthre spokperson for the FIFA World the 12 years sce Qatar was named host of the 2022 tournament, the untry has faced tensifyg cricism over s rights rerd on laborers, women and the LGBT furore has been fuelled by ments om public figur cludg former Qatar player and World Cup ambassador Khalid Salman who told a German broadster that homosexualy was "damage the md". As Qatar prepar to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the ernment has assured prospective visors will wele lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) tourists and that fans will be ee to fly the rabow flag at the gam. The offence of “Za” mak any sexual act by a married person outsi of marriage punishable by ath, while sexual acts by non-married persons are punish by floggg – both offenc no matter if they were heterosexual or homosexual.

GAY QATAR NEWS & REPORTS

Siar s have been reported prevly as well: s Our Inti Unr Arrt report, ILGA World documented s when crimalisg laws had been enforced as early as 1995, when a US cizen was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment and 90 lash for alleged “homosexual activy”. In 1997, 36 gay Filipo migrant workers were ported om the untry on acunt of their sexual orientatn, and 2013 Qatar was one of the untri the Gulf Cooperatn Council that was explorg a ban on LGBT foreigners om workg the regn. In 2016, an 18- year-old-gay social media fluencer om Poland was jail for almost two months, and his arrt had not been rerd for 10 days.

It meant tailg and unrstandg how and why LGBT+ people — and that bloody armband — beme one of the them of the here is a gay guy’s acunt of the past month, reportg the World Cup Qatar. Gianni Infanto speaks ntroversially ahead of the tournament (Photo: Christopher Lee/Getty Imag)Homosexual behavur is illegal Qatar, as is sex outsi of marriage, regardls of sexual orientatn, so some of what I am scribg may e as a surprise. The hostily is worse for those nsired feme, or trans, unrlg that so much about homophobia is unrpned by warped perceptns of the tournament, many Wtern journalists had obssed over whether men would be able to hold hands Doha.

One said he was prepared to set asi his own happs bee he feared his father would be stigmatised by his fay if he was known to have a gay person shared so many of the same terts as me. ”Brighton is often scribed as England’s gay pal, which mak the nversatn untentnally funny — to me, fd some mon ground: “It’s not somethg you n ntrol, ” he says.