The official fictn, Brian Whaker explas, is that gay people don’t exist the Middle East. They do – and for many of them, attus of fay and society are a bigger problem than fear of beg persecuted
Contents:
- SDI ARABIA CELEBRAT PRI MONTH BY HANGG GAYS WH RABOW NOOSE
- GAY JEDDAH, SDI ARABIA | THE ESSENTIAL LGBT TRAVEL GUI!
- EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI
- SDI GAY SCENE: 'FORBIDN, BUT I N'T HELP IT'
SDI ARABIA CELEBRAT PRI MONTH BY HANGG GAYS WH RABOW NOOSE
A Sdi prce has been jailed for life for murrg his manservant, who was found a bed at a plh London hotel where he had been beaten to ath. The fendant spent most of the trial tryg to prove he was not gay. Why? * gay saudi *
Adam* said was dangero to e out as gay his home untry and feared beg forced to an arranged marriage wh a said he was "so lucky" to wed his soulmate, Ray, Manchter and wish everyone uld marry who they love. 'Authentilly myself'Ray said he had also stggled growg up gay the 1970s and 80s England, which was "tough" said his relig school "dmmed to you, 'you are gog to hell'" Adam returned home to Sdi Arabia, spe beg more than 3, 000 apart and later rtricted by the Covid-19 panmic, they kept touch daily and the romance years ago, Ray proposed on a vio ll and after succsfully applyg for a UK fiancé visa, Adam moved to Manchter December 2022.
GAY JEDDAH, SDI ARABIA | THE ESSENTIAL LGBT TRAVEL GUI!
Gay Jeddah Beach bars, clubs, parti, hotels, snas, massag and more. Queer-centric rmatn. Your plete directory to LGBT life Jeddah, Mexi! * gay saudi *
Adam said he had been aaid to even wear lours his home untry so the first thg he did when he moved was start to "grow my mullet, got my ears pierced and booked appotments for tattoos" relled how, ntrast, one of his gay iends Sdi had been forced to marry a woman, addg: "It has ed not only his life but the life of his wife.
The uple, who live London, said a "really betiful memory" was on the way home when one of their sons shouted out of the black b wdow to Trafalgar Square, "My dads jt got married" and cheered "Yay, gay marriage".
Before his trial began at the Old Bailey, Prce Sd b Abdulaziz b Nasir al Sd ma strenuo efforts to keep the qutn of his homosexualy 34-year-old prce admted he had asslted his manservant, Bandar Abdulaziz, but nied barrister, John Kelsey-Fry QC, argued the qutn of sexualy was irrelevant to the se and poted out homosexual acts were a "mortal s" unr Islamic sharia Kelsey-Fry said if the prce was outed as a homosexual he uld face executn his native Sdi Arabia. Image ptn, Bandar Abdulaziz was an orphanChristoph Wilcke, a Sdi Arabia expert wh Human Rights Watch, said homosexuals had the past been executed but was ually for rape and he said a prce would be immune om urt the trial began, Mr Kelsey-Fry went to great lengths to strs his client nied he was a strg of wns suggted otherwise.
EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI
The kgdom’s ultranservative laws neverthels crimalize sodomy and other same-sex relatns, makg them punishable by imprisonment, floggg or ath. Dpe the dangers of gay Sdis, Sdi Arabia still boasts a large yet secretive LGBTQ muny. * gay saudi *
"Two male rts, Pablo Silva and Louis Szikora, also gave evince they had performed sex acts on the photosAlthough the prce never gave evince, durg police terviews he sisted he was heterosexual and had a girliend Sdi Mr Laidlaw said this was a lie: "The fendant's keepg back of his homosexualy might other circumstanc, bee of the cultural background perhaps, be explaed away by embarrassment, or ed, fear. But, for young Sdi men, ntact wh the oppose sex is extremely difficult so there might be a temptatn to experiment before marriage, " said Prof Gse, om the Universy of said about 5, 000 Sdi prc get a yearly stipend of about $200, 000 (£126, 000), but some were "fabuloly wealthy" assltAn sight to the prce's bashfulns about his homosexualy was given by one of the rts, Mr Szikora, who scribed visg the prce for a two-hour "erotic" ssn three days before the said: "The man I met ultimately did want sexual massage but is like mixg Nigel Havers wh Omar Sharif.
LGBTQ+ travelers are a lucrative market, acrdg to Darren Burn, CEO of Out Of Office, a luxury travel planng service for the muny, and of Travel Gay, the world’s largt LGBTQ+ travel platform. “In Dubai there are a lot of gay fluencers, and as long as you unrstand the ntext of the area you’re and rpect the tradnal culture and not show your queerns any way, you’re OK, ” she said.
Callg a momento step towards regnn of the LGBTQ+ muny, Sdi Arabia announced that all homosexuals executed durg pri month would be hung om a rabow noose or behead wh a rabow-lored human rights activists said much further procs remas necsary, the announcement marks a major step forward for gay equaly the kgdom. “We have a thrivg gay muny here Sdi Arabia, and this is our way of regnizg and celebratg , ” Crown Prce Mohammad b Salman told The Miast gay cizens face opprsn throughout the regn, many Middle Eastern regim have marked Pri Month by rporatg the rabow flag. We might also have the opportuny to e our platform to amplify their voic and to support lol anizatns workg to protect and advote for LGBTQ+ rights – however, this is bt done once you have left (and if you ri a gay-iendly untry!
SDI GAY SCENE: 'FORBIDN, BUT I N'T HELP IT'
LGBT Rights Sdi Arabia: homosexualy, gay marriage, gay adoptn, servg the ary, sexual orientatn discrimatn protectn, changg legal genr, donatg blood, age of nsent, and more. * gay saudi *
Admtedly several Gulf untri have a lot of laws that aren’t actually enforced, and this go way beyond beg gay; this clus laws around public displays of affectn, laws around unmarried people stayg the rooms, laws around sex, example, until 2020 was technilly illegal for unmarried people to share a hotel room the UAE; yet how many tens of lns of unmarried upl vised the UAE over time, shared a hotel room, and had no issu? Sdi Arabia has amb tourism goals, and ’s clear that the untry is slowly and subtly liberalizg, om allowg women to drive, to allowg unmarried upl to share hotel rooms, to now welg gay travelers.
* gay saudi *
(Tip of the hat to rear Is, who oddly asked if I’ll “have the tegry to report on this or willfully ignore ” — have I ever really shied away om the topic of travelg to the Middle East as a gay person? Homosexualy⚢✖ Illegal (ath penalty as punishment)Censorship✖ Imprisonment as punishmentNon-bary genr regnn✖ Not legally regnizedDiscrimatn✖ No protectnsEmployment Discrimatn✖ No protectnsHog Discrimatn✖ No protectnsDonatg Blood✖ Banned (fe ferral)Conversn Therapy✖ Not banned.
By The Numbers49% of Sdi Arabians believe beg LGBTI should be a crime32% of Sdi Arabians do not58% of Sdi Arabians are agast the legalizatn of gay marriage18% of Sdi Arabians support HistoryHomosexual activy Sdi Arabia?
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.
Samir, like many gay men the Arab world, guards his sexual orientatn wh a paranoid secrecy. To feel ee he tak long vatns to Thailand, where he has a boyiend, and spends weekends Lebanon, which he regards as havg a more gay-tolerant society. But at home Sdi Arabia, he is vigilant. Samir's parents don't know of his liftyle. He says his mom would kill herself if she found out. They nstantly set him up wh women they nsir potential wiv. At work, Samir watch his words, reful not to aroe the spicn of lleagu. * gay saudi *
It wasn’t until the Afghan Pajhwok news agency explaed how they might be misterpreted that the craze me to a sudn on the ter and you will also fd pi of the “Rabow Qur’an” for sale – an unnscly gay edn of the holy book wh tted pag of every hue and remend on one webse as “an ial gift for Mlims” there are two sis to this cross-cultural misunrstandg. Genr segregatn, which go to extreme lengths the more nservative Mlim untri, enurag homosocial behavur, creatg a suatn where men are often more fortable the prence of other men and where placg a hand on another man’s knee is a sign of iendship, not an vatn to sex.
Historilly, Mlim societi have often acknowledged this – toleratg to some extent even if they the 19th and early 20th centuri, men who had been persecuted for their sexualy Europe often sought refuge Moroc and, long before same-sex marriage was dreamed of the wt, male-on-male partnerships were regnised – and marked wh a ceremony – the remote Egyptian oasis of some Mlim untri, whole towns have bee the butt of jok about the supposed homosexualy of their habants. In Egypt, for example, an old law agast “bchery” is often laws have a tastrophic effect on the liv of people who are unlucky enough to get ught but, spe ocsnal crackdowns, the thori don’t, on the whole, actively seek out gay people to arrt them.
In England 1952, there were 670 prosecutns for sodomy, 3, 087 for attempted sodomy or cent asslt, and 1, 686 for gross problem wh such laws, even if not vigoroly enforced, is that they signal official disapproval of homosexualy and, upled wh the fulmatns of relig scholars, legimise discrimatn by dividuals at an everyday level and may also provi an exce for actn by vigilant. Years before Isis began throwg allegedly gay men off the top of buildgs, other groups Iraq were attackg “un-manly” men – sometim killg them slowly by jectg glue to the reason for the paratively small number of prosecutns is the official fictn that gay people don’t exist to any great extent Mlim untri; homosexualy is regard primarily as a wtern phenomenon and large numbers of arrts would ll that to qutn.