Beirut as an LGBT refuge? "It’s not great"

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Globalpost

By Don Duncan

The Algerian secret service gave transsexual Randa Lamri an ultimatum: Leave the country within 10 days or risk imprisonment and the defamation of her family.

Lamri, like many persecuted gays, lesbians and transexuals in the region, looked to Beirut for refuge.

“I was scared for my security and for the future of my family,” says Lamri, 39, who came to Lebanon on a tourist visa and immediately set about securing a work visa so that she could stay longer.

A founding member of an underground lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) rights association in Algeria called Abu Nahas, Lamri’s way of life had begun to provoke anonymous death threats from Islamist groups and persistent calls and visits to her workplace and family home from authorities.

Finally, the pressure became too much for her to bear.

“My brother-in-law told me: ‘If you die or go to prison and we find out why, your family will be disgraced and I’ll divorce your sister,’” Lamri says over coffee recently in an east Beirut café. She is tall with long jet-black hair and speaks in hushed words punctuated by the occasional toothy giggle.

Like many of the dozens of LGBTI people who flee to Lebanon from Middle Eastern and North African countries each year, Lamri joined up with a network of acquaintances, many of whom she’d met through activism back in Algeria. Relieved to have escaped the dangers facing her at home, Lamri quickly settled into her new-found freedoms in Lebanon.

“Life is much better here than in Algeria,” she says. “Dressing like a woman in Algeria can lead you to anything from three months to three years in prison. Here, there are no laws against transsexualism.”

Many LGBTI refugees here depart home in such haste that there is not enough time to go through the minimum two-month long visa process to get to Europe or North America. So Lebanon has, for many, become the only feasible refuge. It has a simpler visa procedure (many can get it on arrival at the airport) and enjoys a general perception in the region that its capital Beirut is a liberal, relatively gay-friendly city.

“I think the first place they think of [coming to if they can't get to Europe or North America] would be Beirut, primarily because there is an LGBT infrastructure,” says Rasha Moumneh, researcher for the Middle East and North Africa for Human Rights Watch. “You have LGBT organizations, you have the UNHCR here, which is very aware of the specificities of LGBT asylum seekers and refugees.”

The “LGBT infrastructure” Moumneh mentions includes the only openly active LGBTI NGO in the region, Helem, as well as various LGBTI-sensitized services such as ReStart, a clinic which offers psychological counseling for refugees fleeing traumatic conditions, a UNHCR office which is familiar with and sensitized to the specific needs and vulnerabilities of the LGBTI community, as well as a pretty vibrant gay scene of bars, cafes and nightclubs.

“I didn’t think Lebanon was going to be as liberal as it is,” says Lamri, who entered the country in 2009.

It is hard to find an accurate figure of how many LGBTI people fleeing their countries arrive in Lebanon yearly. Out of fear of deportation, many stay away from registering themselves with any NGO or with the UNHCR. Many of those who do register, cite other reasons for fleeing, such as war and internal strife in the case of Iraqis and Syrians. The UNHCR office in Beirut says it gets up to two dozen people annually claiming refugee status for reasons related to their sexuality or gender status. Gay rights groups cite similar figures but acknowledge that this may be just the tip of the iceberg. Some activists say the true figure could be as much as triple the UNHCR figure.

From time to time the numbers spike severely, when there are political developments in other countries, sending members of the LGBTI community fleeing. A coordinated campaign in Iraq in 2009, against gay men primarily, led by the Shia Mahadi Army militia and the Sunni Al Qaeda in Mespotamia militia, claimed the lives of hundreds. Iraqi gay men, or men suspected of being gay, were hunted down in a move to “clean” the morality of Iraq which had been “corrupted” by the foreign influence brought by the U.S invasion in 2003.

A Human Rights Watch report details a litany of threats and torture that Iraqi men faced – being burnt alive, being hung in public places, decapitations, castrations, rape, anuses being glued shut. The campaign sent hundreds fleeing, many to Beirut.

Hamdia, a 20-year-old Iraqi gay man living in Beirut, had already fled before the 2009 homophobic campaign of violence, which has made it unlikely he will ever move back. His family fled to Syria in 2006, after his 11-year-old brother was kidnapped by a gang and was released for a $60,000 ransom. Hamida, who goes by a pseudonym, was still in high school at the time and finished it in Damascus, but the $60,000 ransom meant that his family could no longer afford to send him to London for university as planned. He now studies fashion design in Beirut.

“In Syria, you don’t feel safe. You have the secret police and they are watching you,” he says in his apartment in the west Beirut neighborhood of Hamra. “In Iraq, they think Beirut is like Europe and they have this picture that it is perfect. Beirut is better, sure, but it’s not great.”

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Carving our own path: the pursuit of LGBT rights in the Middle East

Source: MSMGF

By Eli Abu Merhi

It has now been nearly 40 years since the gay liberation movement began in the West. We have four decades on which we can look back, study how far things have come, and examine the major changes that have taken place. Changes have occurred not only in the definition of our rights, but also at the cultural and social level. There is certainly much to look back on.

When one takes account of the major victories that have been achieved across many countries like the UK, South Africa, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States, one feels it is time to raise a glass and celebrate. Yes, this is good! One should celebrate such momentous progress and achievements. Yet, one must also reflect on the path to these victories, seize the lessons of how such progress took place, where it fell short, and why.

It is this kind of examination that holds the most value as we look to the experiences of these countries for lessons for our own movements. I am a gay man living in Lebanon, a country in a region that has seen no shortage of social change in recent years. As we push forward in pursuit of LGBT rights in our own countries, it is tempting to take cues from what has come before us in other parts of the world. Sometimes this is very helpful, and sometimes the unique social and cultural landscapes of the Middle East require us to look inward, to devise our own advocacy solutions tailored to who we are, to our relationships, and to our societies.

The media presents a strong example of the necessity of a different approach in the Middle East.  In some countries, homosexuality has become a selling point in marketing. For example, the very successful American television series “Modern Family” features a gay couple living happily with their adopted daughter in the suburbs of Los Angeles. A number of TV spots have done the same thing, using the image of “gay” to sell products.

The depiction of homosexuality in the Lebanese media has been markedly different. Some companies have used gay characters in ad campaigns – for example, a Lebanese cheese brand has used a gay man in their television ads – but they approached the topic in a humorous way, using the character as a source of entertainment rather than creating a figure the audience could identify with.

Television programs that have tried to depict homosexuality in a less comical, more genuinely positive light have run into a different kind of road block.  UNAIDS recently attempted to shoot a documentary for a Lebanese TV program to promote a “good image” of homosexuality, emphasizing the importance of family acceptance and support. The producers indeed found gay men in Lebanon who were out to their families and enjoyed family acceptance. But, to the surprise of the producers, very few of them agreed to appear on the program. Not even facial distortion or other identity protections could convince them otherwise.

Why this reluctance to appear in the program?  Because their families were not ready to face their communities.  The families requested that their sons deny the offer to take part in the show.  The families could accept that their sons were gay, but they could not face the judgment of their friends and neighbors.  Society is still highly influential – ostracizing not only the gay son, but also the family that embraces him.

It is clear that family acceptance of a son who has relationships with men is just one of many steps on the road to dignity and equality for LGBT people in the Middle East. Empowerment for MSM cannot only be focused on the man himself – it must also include his family. Such pressure on families is high and rising all throughout the Arab world. It will not be easy to test the limits of a community’s understanding toward a family that accepts their MSM son in the region. To say nothing of a son who is also living with HIV. Family empowerment is an essential part of the fight against stigma and for better rights, health, equality and access to HIV services in the Middle East.

It is clear that social change is possible in the Middle East, as evidenced by the sweeping revolutions of the Arab Spring. Some LGBT and HIV activists believe these events not only show that change is possible, but that we should push for the change we want right now, that we should strike while the iron is hot. While the Arab Spring presents new opportunities for change, a closer look at the forces that have shaped the course of events in the region also shows the pitfalls that must be navigated while pushing for our human rights.

When the Arab Spring began, it held within its wings a hope for change – change of many different kinds.  Many MSM took to the streets to push for the changes we want to see. However, as event progressed, the words of the community were overshadowed by organized calls for change from the mosques, launched every Friday after ritual prayers. These calls began as free and genuine, but over time, they were guided more and more by religious clerks. And now? The Muslim Brotherhood is now more influential in Egypt than it ever was before.  MSM were not the only ones to see an opportunity to tip events in their favor.

As religious conservatives are rising to fill the power vacuum, some gay Arab bloggers have been vocally concerned. “In Egypt and Tunisia there was a lot of hope initially that there would be a more tolerant civil society,” said Dan Littauer, the London-based editor of Gay Middle East. “Now it seems that the impetus for change will be hijacked by conservative forces who will make the situation worse for gay people and other minorities…  In Syria and other countries, there's a fear that gay people could be used as sacrificial lambs.”

Despite these challenges, progress is being made. Until relatively recently, homosexuality was illegal in Lebanon. According to article 534 of the Lebanese Penal Code, any carnal activity between two people against the order of nature carried a punishment of up to one year in prison.

This law resulted in many people put in jail, as well as the deportation of many migrant workers. However, in March of 2009, Judge Mounir Suleiman from Batroun court district made a landmark decision: he ruled that consensual homosexual relations are not against the order of nature, and thus such cases cannot be prosecuted under article 534.

“Whereas man is part of nature and one of its elements, and a cell within a cell in it, it cannot be said that any practice of his or any behavior of his is against nature even if it is a criminal act because it is the laws of nature,” ruled Judge Suleiman. “If it rained in summer, if a heat wave struck in winter, or if a tree bore fruit after its usual time, it is all in accordance with the system and laws of nature for it is nature itself.”

A beacon of hope?  Perhaps, but certainly case to follow as we build our own path to the rights we deserve.

Eli Abu Merhi is a Lebanese activist and artist, whose work often expresses a critical observation of the community and transmits it with an upfront message that reflects the reality with all its beauty and ugliness. Holder of a law degree and an art student, Eli was born in Beirut, the capital of contradictions. He established OSE, organization for sexuality education in 2011 to lead TOT programs nation-wide defending gender equality, freedom of sexual orientation and liberties.  He is currently a member of the MSMGF steering committee.

Related articles

• Homosexuality acceptance in Moroccan society today (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Lady Gaga speaks out for LGBT rights in Lebanon and the Middle (page2rss.com)

Video: New documentary on Arab Spring features Lebanese lesbian activist

Source: Ahram

Rebecca Saade

A new documentary about the Arab Spring has had its debut screening in Sweden, adding to the growing number of films about the region’s revolutions.

Zero Silence, a Swedish production, takes us on a journey through Tunisia, Egypt and Lebanon beginning in 2009, over a year before the revolutions began.

Alexandra Sandels, one of the filmmakers, has been a journalist in the Arab region for over five years and speaks Arabic. Her colleagues, Jonny von Wallström and Javeria Rizvi Kabanihave have also worked in the region before, particularly in Egypt.

The film gives an insight into the lives of activists in the three countries but offers little new material for a regular Arab viewer.

“When we started the project we felt that voices from the MENA region were missing internationally,” Sandels told Ahram Online. “Media often portrays violence and what we were interested in documenting were the ordinary people and members of the young generation pushing for change in their home countries...This might be obvious to an Egyptian but not necessarily for the rest of the world.”

Despite the intensity of the topic, the documentary has poetic undertones and an unhurried pace that gives the subjects moments of reflection. The soundtrack and the composition of shots give the film many picturesque sequences and the editing helps maintain a consistent flow.

Sandels had known her subjects before shooting began and it’s evident that most of them were at ease during the filming.

 “It was important for us that the audience would feel as if they were 'hanging out' with the subjects,” she explained.

The film focuses on Egyptian activists Wael Abbas and Hossam El-Hamalawy, Rebecca Saade from Lebanon and Lilia Wesalty from Tunisia.

In pre-revolution footage of Abbas and Hamalawy they talk about the immediacy of an uprising (Hamalawy says that the best solution is a general strike).

Wesalty in Tunisia relays the events of the Tunisian uprising and talks about the newfound ownership of public space, something missing during the Ben Ali regime.

Saade’s story is more personal, talking about her life as a lesbian in Lebanon and her LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) activism.

Read more »

In Australia, Lebanese gay man wins asylum appeal

Source: Herald Sun

By Padraic Murphy

A man whose marriage to an Australian woman fell apart after he began frequenting gay clubs has been recommended for asylum because she outed him to his family in Lebanon.

The Lebanese Muslim man came to Australia in 2008 after being sponsored by his Australian wife, whom he met at a barbecue.

A Refugee Review Tribunal decision said the woman became suspicious of her husband after he had difficulty consummating the marriage. He also began having sex with men.

The tribunal said he began frequenting Prahran gay clubs, including the Love Machine, before the marriage finally fell apart.

The man's original application for asylum failed and he took his case to the review tribunal.

This month the tribunal overturned the original decision, describing the man as a "courageous witness". It found he genuinely faced persecution because his wife had told relatives in Lebanon about his sexuality.

"Despite the popular view that Lebanon is the gay-friendliest country in the Arab world, some activists say that behind closed doors, sexual minorities often suffer physical and psychological abuse," the tribunal found.

The tribunal also rejected suggestions the man could return to Lebanon if he suppressed his homosexuality.

"Consequently, the tribunal accepts that to require the applicant to modify his behaviour in the event that he returns to Lebanon by concealing or suppressing his homosexuality, including the nature of his relationship with the witness, would amount to a persecutory curtailment of his sexual identity," the tribunal found.

"The tribunal therefore finds that there is more than a remote chance that the applicant will encounter serious harm ... in  the reasonably foreseeable future, should he return to Lebanon."

The man's case will now be reconsidered by the Immigration Minister before a final asylum decision is made.

Related articles

• In Australia, gay Saudi wins review of asylum claim (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

In Middle East and North Africa, UNAIDS supports step up for gay/MSM services

Image via Wikipedia

Source: UNAIDS

Men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgendered people are amongst the most stigmatized populations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). In spite of social tension and sensitivities, most countries in the region have recognized the importance of programming for, and working with, MSM to strengthen effective national AIDS responses. Nevertheless, existing prevention programmes have remained limited in scope and scale, highlighting limitations in coverage and quality.

In this context, UNAIDS brought together representatives from civil society, governments, national AIDS programmes and regional and international partners to a workshop in Lebanon to discuss ways to scale up interventions that focus on the needs of MSM in the region.

The workshop was organized in collaboration with Helem-Lebanese Protection for LGBT association, the International AIDS Alliance (AA) and the Regional Arab Network Against AIDS (RANAA). It focused on the outcomes of a policy research project entitled “Enabling Access to HIV Services for Men Who Have Sex with Men - Situational analysis and Partnership Development”. The main purpose of the research, conducted in Algeria, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia, was to identify ways to enable and facilitate this access to HIV services.

Existing repressive laws and policies deter MSM from seeking HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services.  Currently 18 of the 21 countries that form the MENA region criminalize male to male sex behaviour — and four enforce capital punishment.

Participants at the meeting highlighted the importance of creating enabling environments that allow unrestricted dissemination of prevention messages and services, appropriate provision of HIV treatment, care and support services, and the empowerment of MSM and transgender population in planning, implementing and evaluating programme strategies.

Participants also reviewed a handbook developed by UNAIDS, based on field experiences and lessons learnt, to inform effective, expanded and culturally sensitive programmatic interventions among MSM and transgender people.

“Most programmes in MENA are still at a pilot stage. We need to scale up current programs using the extensive experience over the last years. This handbook, adapted to the region’s context, will hopefully inform interventions among MSM and transgender people,” said Ms Nicole Massoud, Regional Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor for the UNAIDS regional support team.

There are no reliable estimates of the number of men who have sex with men in the region. However, there is documented evidence of increased HIV spread and risk among MSM and transgender people, which may result in concentrated HIV epidemics over the next decade.

Related articles

• In Africa, will massive US HIV/Aids funding start trickling to gay/MSM groups? (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

In Lebanon, International Day Against Homophobia celebrated

Posters on Beirut walls, 17 May 2011

By Gaytheist

The International Day Against Homophobia is a yearly occasion to remind the world that the fight for gay rights is not over yet. Discrimination still exists; Homosexuals fired from work, rejected by family or beaten to death are just a few examples of what gay undergo. There has been certainly some great progress in the past few years but more is yet to be achieved.

IDAHO is celebrated around the world, and Lebanon is no exception. The country might not seem like the perfect environment for gay activism, but recently there has been a lot of related buzz. Some Lebanese activists have started an inspiring blog where homosexuals and their friends can share stories about how homophobia affects their daily lives. The stories are beautifully written and accompanied by creative banners crafted by local artists. Additionally, a group of gay rights advocates have put up flyers in some areas of Beirut. It aimed to question people’s perception of homosexuality and get them to notice the damage caused by homophobia. The messages ranged from discrimination at the workplace, to death threats by family members and the current state of Lebanese law that criminalizes homosexuality under claims of ‘unnatural intercourse’. The campaign was well received, attracting public attention and interest on the blogsphere.

Helem, a Lebanese LGBT rights NGO, is organizing an event for the occasion 22 May. It will include documentary screening and panel discussions. The main theme for this year’s event is the rejection of all forms of discrimination against LGBT individuals. 

Links

• The Lebanon IDAHO blog

Coverage of the street campaign

• Gaytheist - Streets Of Beirut: Speaking Loud Against Homophobia
• NSFW - We're Going to the Streets!
• Helem event page

Related articles

• Lebanese bloggers join International Day Against Homophobia, participate in massive Brazil action against hate crimes (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• World Urged to Commemorate Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (mask.org.za)
• Cubans march against homophobia in Havana (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Lebanese bloggers join International Day Against Homophobia; participate in massive Brazil action against hate crimes

LGBT Lebanese bloggers have launched a joint blog to prepare for and promote Lebanon’s International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) events, coming up in a fortnight.

Eight bloggers are contributing at time of writing.

Discussion on Lebanon’s International Day Against Homophobia is also happening on twitter using the hashtags #LebLGBT and #LebIDAHO

IDAHO events internationally are being added to the website www.idahomophobia.org

The organisation has announced that the United Nations will be releasing ahead of IDAHO a first ever brochure highlighting UN official positions on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Human Rights. The brochure will be launched by a video adress from Human Rights Commissionner Navanethem Pillay.

Other events or actions announced include that the Transrespect versus Transphobia Worldwide project (TvT) will publish on its website an interactive map documenting over 550 killings of trans people worldwide since 2008.

Dozens of events will be happening throughout the UK. In Japan, 17 cities will host initiatives including an effort by the LGBT community to write letters of support for people impacted by the Tsunami and Earthquake. Eight cities in China will host events. US events will include for the first time ever an event in the State of Idaho.

In Burundi, LGBT groups will inaugurate the first shelter home for LGBT people who have been kicked out of their homes. Organisations Boys of Bangladesh and BANDHU are holding a series of conferences, film screenings and discussions on legal aspects within Universities to increase awareness amongst students. Kenyan LGBT people and sex workers will be marching in Kisumu and Nairobi and holding a one-day training session for police forces, lawyers and health care providers - plus a fashion show.

On 18 May thousands of activists will march on Brazil’s capital in the largest day of action against hate crimes and homophobia in Brazil's history. allout.org say this is a key opportunity to show Brazil's political leaders that people everywhere are demanding urgent action to end the escalating hate and violence. They are asking for supporters around the world to submit photos of themselves by 5 May (tomorrow) holding a sign urging the passage of an anti-hate crimes law to be included in a massive visual projection.

• To submit a photo > www.allout.org/brazil

Related articles

• International Day Against Homophobia events announced (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Video: Film explores homosexuality in the Arab world

Source Bangalore Mirror

By Sudha Pillai

He is young. He is daring. He is of Lebanese/ Palestinian origin, living in Dubai. And...he is a homosexual man.

One can get killed or at least jailed for being homosexual in that part of the world (In Dubai, as in most Arab countries, homosexuality is a crime punishable by a jail sentence ranging from 3-15 years). In this backdrop, Fadi Hindash has pushed the boundaries even further by making a film about homosexuality in Dubai and the hypocratic ways of the Arab world.

One might think that Fadi has a death wish, but then Fadi prefers to live his life and tell his stories with integrity rather than cloak himself in hypocrisy. In his film Not Quite the Taliban, the young filmmaker talks about his own homosexuality and also confronts the modern generation of Arabs who he feels are more conservative than the previous generations.

Fadi Hindash, screenwriter and director of documentary and feature films, talks to Bangalore Mirror. Excerpts

Q: What is Not Quite the Taliban all about?

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Australian court tells asylum seeking Lebanese 'you can't be gay as you didn't apply quick enough'

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

By Bellinda Kontominas

A Lebanese man who says he is gay and became engaged to an Australian woman to please his abusive father has been denied a protection visa because he was not believed to be homosexual.

The 25-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, sought the visa in April last year, saying he suffered persecution in Lebanon for being gay and experienced constant pressure from his father to marry because he was not ''acting like a man''.

The man purported to have had two secret homosexual relationships before coming to Australia for the first time in 2007.

Read more »

Gay tourists limited view of Lebanese life

Source: Bekhsoos

By M/ M

Near my friend’s house in New York, there are always groups of people posing for pictures. I see them across the street as I walk, still bleary eyed, from her apartment and towards my morning coffee and bagel. The groups and individuals posing for pictures change throughout the day, but the cameras do not stop, and the smiles of the tourists, though fixed on different faces, begin to blur and look the same.

My friend lives across the avenue from the Stonewall Inn (now called the Stonewall Bar), the site of a police raid in 1969. This police raid was the catalyst of the modern-day gay rights movement in the United States. This movement, in turn, has become the measure of homosexual activism internationally. Every year, cities across the world hold gay pride marches towards the end of June, a commemoration of the riots of 1969 in New York City.

Today the Stonewall Inn is a tourist trap. People from all over the world come to New York City’s Greenwich Village to have coffee in Christopher Street Park, browse the area’s numerous gay bars and cafes, and buy trinkets at the gift shops that specialize in Gay Tourism. Tourists buy rainbow flags, pink triangles, T-shirts and postcards, all commodities that claim to represent gay citizens internationally.

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Beirut magazine is 'outing' LGBT, "encouraging gay bashing"

Source: BoyBeirut

Al Jaras Magazine is apparently on a mission: to spread homophobia and encouraging gay bashing.

There’s a new headline 0n its cover (published on Friday 1 October):

“إلى الشاذّة: إن لم تعتذري سننشر إسمك وصورتك”

or

“To the dyke: If you don’t apologize, we will publish your name and picture”.

Okay.

So the magazine is apparently not budging; it continues on using derogatory terms against gays.

Not only that. Nidal El Ahmadiyye is threatening the person who wrote a letter responding to Diana Wehbe’s gay bashing in last week’s issue.

Akh…as if gay bashing and spreading homophobia wasn’t enough. Now threatening?

Dear Al Jaras Magazine,
You’re using gay bashing to sell magazines and that is just not right. Stop spreading ignorance and hatred.

Dear Readers,
If you don’t approve of the message Al Jaras is sending, then it’s simple:

BOYCOTT AL JARAS & SPREAD THE WORD.

• Pictures of the magazine's series of homophobic articles

Praying for Pride

Image by hebedesign via Flickr

By Andy Haden

When a gay friend was forced by the Lebanese police to disclose the identities of other homosexuals, Jimmy’s real problems started. The police came to his house to find him, and caused Jimmy to flee the country as a result.

“When my father found out, he said he doesn’t accept me in the house. He would accept me as a criminal in the house but not as a gay, because this brings shame upon the family name.”

Tolerance & taboo

Islam and homosexuality are not two words that tend to be associated with each other, conjuring up images of prejudice, shame and violence, even death. Some claim that the two are in no way compatible, with this passage from the Koran (7:80-81) being used to justify their beliefs:

“We also sent Lut: He said to his people: “Do ye commit lewdness such as no people in creation (ever) committed before you? For ye practice your lusts on men in preference to women: ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds.”

The Netherlands has long been a bastion of liberalism, with a rich history of tolerance and acceptance of all cultures and minorities. Fearing for their lives, many LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) Muslims from around the world flock to what is described as the ‘pink pillar of light’ in the Netherlands. However, regulations on asylum are being tightened up, with those fleeing because of their sexuality having to prove that they are both in danger, and actually gay. Islamophobia is also on the rise in some sections of Dutch society. What must life be like for those caught in the middle of this – those who dare to be gay and Muslim?

Read more »

Nude art magazine riles middle east

Source: Daily Beast

By Betwa Sharma

When the eighth issue of Jasad—a Beirut-based cutting edge art magazine—rolls out next month, it will be the face of criticism and denouncement throughout the Middle East. Betwa Sharma on why the publication continues to succeed.

“They think they own my freedom/I let them think so/And I happen,” writes Joumana Haddad, in one of her poems called I Am a Woman. Two years ago, Haddad made “happen” Jasad, an audacious magazine in the Middle East devoted exclusively to the body.

Even as conservative factions of Islam have choked the liberal stream of ideas that existed in the region even two decades ago, some women doggedly claim a right to their bodies and sexuality; Jasad is perhaps a manifestation of that claim.

A peek through the keyhole on its website reveals a moving line of classic and contemporary nude images. The busted handcuff, which dangles at the beginning of Jasad’s spelling in Arabic, symbolizes a break from veiling the body.

“Have you ever seen a man in a burqa?” said Haddad, founder and editor-in-chief of the magazine, which is published from Lebanon. “It is an act of violence and oppression practiced exclusively on the female element of society.”

Read more »

A Lebanese author fisks British opinion on gay Lebanese life

 Image via Wikipedia

Source: Bekhoos

By shant

Ah! The joys of reading articles in western newspapers, written by “Arab” journalists who assess our situation with their “find the homo” glasses.

On the 28 August, I received an email which linked me to an article posted in the Guardian, written by Diamond Walid and titled “Gay, straight, or just Lebanese?”

To cut things short, the article didn’t sit right with me; it felt like another poor researched, feel good, male-centered, classist and generalized piece using Boy George as a gay-o-meter to analyze our society’s gayness and homo-eroticah.

Here is my first impression of it all…

When it comes to 534 [Lebanese sodomy law], Walid writes that “there is less fear of harassment since the anti-homosexuality law is no longer really applied.”

Read more »

Audio: Gays' global search for acceptance

Source: NPR

Discussion by Tony Cox on 'Talk of the Nation' on 'Gays' Global Search For Acceptance'. With Gregory Branch, correspondent, GlobalPost.com, Andrew Meldrum, senior editor for Africa, GlobalPost.com and Rachel Tivens, executive director, Immigration Equality.

Around the globe, men and women are being punished, sometimes with death, because of their sexual orientation. A recent study by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association reveals that it is a crime to be gay in 76 countries. As a result, many gays live in constant fear or become refugees fleeing for their safety.

Some nations are now considering whether sexual orientation is grounds for political asylum. Today, we're going to talk about gay and lesbian rights in countries other than the United States.

Morocco's queer uprising

Source: Eureka Street

By James M. Dorsey

A cacophony of outrage and condemnation greeted Mithly, the Arab world's partly European Union-funded only gay magazine, when it hit the internet and underground 'newsstands' in Morocco for the first time.

Targeting the gay community in Morocco and Europe as well as Arab gays, Mithly, a play on the Arabic words for homosexual and 'like me', can only be sold under the counter in Morocco and the Arab world. The overwhelming majority of its readers access it online. For safety and political reasons, the groundbreaking magazine's editorial staff is based in Spain as are its servers.

While Mithly hopes to steer debate in Morocco and the Arab world about homosexuality into calmer, more rational waters, it does not want to rock the boat in a country where authorities are among the more relaxed in the Arab world because of tourism that has attracted a high-end gay community. Gay activists fear that a more open Mithly presence in Morocco could further fuel Islamist and populist protests and force the government to crack down in a bid to prevent the Islamists from gaining the high ground.

Like everywhere in the Arab world, homosexuality in Morocco is illegal. Homosexuals can be jailed for up to three years for what Moroccan law describes as 'lewd or unnatural acts with an individual of the same sex'. Islamist agitation has already increased homophobia in Morocco in recent months. 'The constant attacks on homosexuals by the Islamist parties and newspapers worry us,' says Mourad, a Mithly journalist.

Yemeni cultural magazine, Al-Thaqafiya, was forced to cease after publishing a film review that described homosexuality as 'part and parcel of our society'. The magazine sparked protests in parliament; the Paris based reviewer, Hamid Aqabi, says he has received death threats.

Read more »

Lebanon: New publication provides analysis on Article 534

Source: bekhsoos.com

Helem’s latest publication, Only 534, offers a concise and informative analysis of article 534 of the Lebanese penal code, which criminalizes “unnatural sexual intercourse”. Following Nizar Saghieh’s excellent legal analysis of the application of article 534 published by Helem earlier this year, this booklet aims to distill some of the most relevant ideas in a manner that is clear, accessible, and useful for LGBTs in Lebanon. It is also unique in pushing forward very explicit rights-based language for issues of sexual orientation (and to a lesser degree) gender identity.

In this vein, Only 534 begins with an overview of some of the violations LGBT people are subjected to because of their sexual orientation – violations that are facilitated and exonerated by the existence of laws that are understood to criminalize homosexual sexual behavior. The analysis offered of article 534 in the Lebanese penal code is also worth noting. Helem unabashedly take aim at the legislative language of article 534, which privileges a particular set of moral and social considerations at the expense of an individual’s personal freedoms. While all societies regu late sexuality in myriad ways, this particular legal regulation was introduced to Lebanon by the French during the colonial period, basing it on the regressive sexual mores of the Catholic Church, which views sex as dirty, shameful, and purely for the purposes of reproduction. On a societal level, the law also represents part of social order whose basic unit is the patriarchal family – any behavior seen to be threatening to that order is therefore criminalized (apart from 534, marital rape laws and adultery laws for example also serve this purpose while maintaining the privileged status of the male within the familial unit).
Continuing to destabilize the logic behind article 534, Helem question the usefulness of the category of the “natural”, the antithesis of which is used as the basic reasoning behind criminalization. Even within the Lebanese judiciary there is a push against this regressive mode of thinking. In November 2009, a Batroun judge ruled that homosexuality cannot possibly be considered unnatural, and that therefore the criminalization of homosexual behavior was legally unjustified.

Rather than focus solely on the right to freedom of sexual expression, Helem have made a plea for article 534 to be annulled on the basis of respect for privacy and personal liberties, concepts that already exist and have some traction within Lebanese law. If the boundaries of such concepts are pushed further and the state loosens its grip on what people say, think, believe, or sleep with, then we, as an entire society, stand to gain.

• Helem: Only 534 (PDF)

Lebanon: Randa's story

Source: al-bab.com


By Brian Whitaker

An unusual book-signing took place in Beirut at the end of last month. "Memoirs of Randa the Trans" ( مذكرات رندا الترنس) is the life story of an Algerian raised as a boy, who felt trapped in a male body. 

Mocked and abused at school, and later threatened with death by religious extremists, Randa fled to Lebanon. She felt safer there, but finding work proved difficult:

"When she applied for a nursing job at a hospital in Beirut, the employer hailed her resume and experience but told Randa it was against the hospital's policy to hire transsexuals.

"The only jobs she was offered sounded pretty sleazy: exotic dancer or entertainer at nightclubs. Once, someone suggested she should try prostitution – a common solution for transsexuals who are outcasts in this region, according to Randa."

Her biography, co-written with Lebanese journalist Hazem Saghyieh, is thought to be the first of its kind in Arabic.

Video: 20 years of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission

Reflections on the work of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission celebrating its 20th Anniversary in 2010 as it works to end discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. IGLHRCs work spans the globe with staff in the Americas, Asia and Africa working to bring human rights to everyone, everywhere.

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• You're Invited to IGLHRC's A Celebration of Courage With Rep. Barney Frank (queerty.com)

Report on Lebanese discrimination against LGBT launched

Dr. Faysal El-Kak and Ms. Tamam Mroue

Source: bekhsoos.com - Feb 15

By Joelle

Lebanon-based LGBT organization Helem launched on Monday, February 8, 2010 in Beirut  a report on institutional discrimination against LGBTs in Lebanon, consisting of two studies.

Funded by the Ford Foundation, the report concluded a series of thematic researches that address the effect of Article 534 on the political, civil, economical, social, and cultural rights of people of non-conforming gender identities and sexual orientations.

In December 2009, Helem released a groundbreaking report on the legal situation of homosexuals in Arab countries, with cases studies from Tunisia and Lebanon.

The organization said that all three researches would serve as the basis of its future planning and advocacy campaigns.


Homophobia in Universities in Lebanon

Entitled “The Right of Gays and Lesbians to Universities,” the first study was prepared by social worker Tamam Mroue.

It covered a representative sample from five different universities in Lebanon, namely the Lebanese University, the American University of Beirut (AUB), the Lebanese American University (LAU), Université St. Joseph (USJ), and Université Saint-Esprit de Kaslik (USEK), which teach public health, philosophy and psychology, as well as social service.

The study was also based on focus group discussions with heterosexual students, interviews with professors and three case studies of homosexual students who suffered discrimination, two of which are included in the report.

“Homosexuals find it hard to completely integrate social and emotional communities,” Ms. Mroue explained, “some times due to the Lebanese society’s limited acceptance of their orientation or identity in general, and others due to discrimination against them going as far as ostracization, marginalization, and psychological as well as physical abuse. Add to that Article 534 of the Lebanese penal code which criminalizes ‘unnatural relations’ and with which legislators strictly define homosexual relations. Their acceptance differs from one university to the other, and from one faculty to the other even, not only due to the students’ diverse cultures, walks of life and religious affiliations which all forbid homosexual relations, but also due to universities’ educational approaches.”

Even though the reasons for university-based discrimination against LGBT people are not entirely clear, the study supposes that negative or positive practices affecting homosexuals are influenced by the positions of the Lebanese educational system through what it produces in terms of positions, cultures, concepts, tools to spread knowledge and perpetuation of positions on social causes, including homosexuality. It attempts to venture into public and private universities in Lebanon to explore how homosexuality is addressed in their regulations, by-laws, curricula and treatment of homosexuals.

Discriminatory Practices on Campus: By virtue of universities’ ideologies and structures and in the absence of any related and proper codes of conduct, homosexuals are subject to discrimination, including harassment, insult and ostracization.

The identities and cultures of the university are not strictly influenced by the ideas and ideologies of its current and past founders, professors and lecturers, as well as its academic material,” noted Ms. Mroue. “They are also influenced by their geographic location, architectural design, by-laws, and students’ communication spaces outside the classroom, which all allow or forbid the existence of tools to express opinions and positions and allow cultural, and religious minorities to show themselves and take part in the public sphere. The multitude of these tools of expression encourages homosexuals, as minorities with psychological and social particularities, to proclaim their difference, problems and demands.”

Homosexuality in Academic Approaches in Lebanese Universities: Homosexuality is mentioned in the curricula of the aforementioned specialties in Lebanese universities, however the means to address it differ depending on the professors, administrations and students, and they’re not all positive.

Approaches are always marked by openly racist positions on the part of students,” said Ms. Mroue, “and moral condemnation of homosexuality on the part of professors.”

Drawing on the works of such educational theorists as Paolo Freire and Pierre Bourdieu, Ms. Mroue stressed that education reproduces the existing social system with its positions and values. As such, “the Lebanese educational system is a mirror of the Lebanese society with its contradictions and diversity,” she concluded. “Universities are at the service of the interests and values of those in charge, be they religious secthos in universities with religious affiliations, or sectarian parties in universities and campuses where they play the role of the ‘de facto authority’ as is the case in the Lebanese University.” Consequently, LGBT people find it difficult to integrate such environments.

Recommendations: Notwithstanding the need to address homophobia in schools, Ms. Mroue called upon all stakeholders to actively work together to end discrimination against LGBT people in Lebanese universities. She recommended that human rights organizations in particular document and report on gay rights abuses, that homosexual people stand up for themselves to break stereotypes and misconceptions about their behavior, that public and private universities amend their curricula in conformity with research and science developments and in compliance with human rights and anti-discrimination conventions, and that the state enact modern and just laws that conform to international rights-based conventions it adheres to.

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