Gay Lebanon News and Reports 2009-11

by Tony Grew
A Beirut-based gay rights group that recently won an award for its work has complained of brutality after two men were beaten up and arrested by soldiers. In a statement on its website Helem condemned last Thursday’s attack, which was first reported by a human rights group. Two gay men were having sex in the lobby of an uninhabited building in Ashrafieh, a suburb of Beirut, when they were discovered by Lebanese Army soldiers, dragged out into the street and severly beated.

"One, half naked, was even exhibited bystanders attracted to the show, just for fun," according to Helem. Bystanders intervened and the beating ended. The men were held overnight at a military barracks and have been handed over to civil authorities. They remain in custody.

Helem said: "It is high time that the country’s lawmakers looked at an obsolete, ridiculous law that condemns and punishes homosexuality in Lebanon. At a time when gay marriage is permitted in many countries, the authorities hypocritically deny the simplest expression of reality, but they will have to face one day or another."

Article 534 of the Lebanese Penal Code prohibits sexual relations that are "contradicting the laws of nature," which is punishable by up to a year in prison. The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) announced last week that it would award its 2009 Felipa de Souza Award to Helem. The Award recognises the courage and effectiveness of groups or leaders dedicated to improving the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex (LGBTI) and other individuals stigmatised and abused because of their sexuality or HIV status.

IGLHRC said: "The first organisation in the Arab world to set up a gay and lesbian community centre, Helem’s work has consistently broken new ground in a country that criminalises homosexuality and where violence and abuse are persistent problems."

Founded in 2004, Helem (the Arabic acronym of "Lebanese Protection for Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgender") is based in Beirut, with support chapters in Australia, France, Canada and the United States. The Felipa Award will be presented to Helem as part of IGLHRC’s A Celebration of Courage gala event on March 30 2008 in New York and on April 2 2008 in San Francisco.

March 30, 2009 – The Daily Star

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Local gay rights organization to receive award in US

by Dalila Mahdawi, Daily Star staff
Beirut – A Lebanese gay rights organization will on Monday be presented with a prestigious international award in the United States in recognition of its work. Helem, an Arabic acronym of "Lebanese Protection for Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgenders" but also meaning ‘dream,’ is a Beirut-based non-governmental organization that has worked since 2004 to promote the legal, social and cultural rights of the above individuals. Helem was the first organization of its kind in the Middle East, though it has since been joined by ASWAT (Voices), an organization for Palestinian lesbians, and the Iranian Queer Railroad.

The organization was selected by The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) as the 2009 recipient of the Felipa de Souza Award in recognition of Helem’s work to improve the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) and others who face discrimination because of their sexuality or HIV positive status. Announcing the award, IGLHRC said: "The first organization in the Arab world to set up a gay and lesbian community center, Helem’s work has consistently broken new ground in a country that criminalizes homosexuality and where violence and abuse are persistent problems. We applaud their courage and commitment to human rights for all."

"We are very proud to accept the Felipa Award from IGLHRC," Helem board member Shadi Ghrawi said in a statement. "It’s a great honor to be selected. We hope it will help advance the struggle for human rights for LGBTI people in Lebanon and throughout the Middle East."

The Felipa Award will be presented to Helem’s coordinator, George Azzi, on March 30 in New York and on April 2 in San Francisco, California. Among Helem’s primary activities is a campaign to have Article 534, which criminalizes homosexuality under "unnatural sexual intercourse," removed from the Lebanese penal code. Activists claim the article is used to intimidate the LGBTI community, and those convicted under it can spend up to one year in prison. According to Helem, abolishing Article 534 would "help reduce state and societal persecution and pave the way to achieving equality for the LGBT community in Lebanon."

Helem also offers free and anonymous 15-minute HIV tests to the general public while advocating the rights of HIV positive individuals. News of Helem’s award comes two months after the group’s vocal criticism against the violent assault of two gay men by members of the Lebanese Armed Forces in Beirut’s Sassine Square area. Soldiers found the two men embracing in the lobby of an abandoned building and dragged them into the street and beat them. "One, half naked, was even exhibited to bystanders … just for fun," said a statement by Helem in late January.

According to the group, the men were detained at a military barracks and were handed over to the civil authorities, who continue to detain them. "It is high time that the country’s lawmakers looked at an obsolete, ridiculous law that condemns and punishes homosexuality in Lebanon," Helem said of Article 534. "At a time when gay marriage is permitted in many countries, the [Lebanese] authorities hypocritically deny the simplest expression of reality that they will have to face one day or another."

May 04, 2009 – The Daily Star

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Study calls for key policy changes to help curb spread of AIDS in Lebanon – Social stigmas hurt efforts to combat disease – expert

by Karah Byrns – Special to The Daily Star
Beirut – In an effort to assess Lebanon’s progress in controlling the spread of AIDS, the National AIDS Control Program (NAP) conducted four case studies over the past year with the financial support of the World Bank, and published its findings at the end of April. Results not only revealed the strengths and weaknesses of specific initiatives targeting most-at-risk populations, but also highlighted an unsettling trend of ignorance about HIV/AIDS among the general population that if left unaddressed, could permit the virus to spread considerably in the coming years.

In 2007, the official number of people living with HIV/AIDS in Lebanon was 1,056, with 92 new cases reported. In 2008, the number of new cases jumped to 116, bringing the official national total to 1,172. In reality, NAP estimates that figure to be closer to 3,000. Recently, the NAP annual report on cumulative and newly reported cases of HIV/AIDS pinpointed sexual behavior as the most prevalent mode of transmission in Lebanon, with more than half of cases attributable to heterosexual activity.

More troubling still, a 2004 NAP study entitled "Knowledge, Attitudes, Beliefs, and Practices of the Lebanese Population Concerning HIV/AIDS" revealed that 84 percent of sexually active Lebanese between the ages of 15 and 49 had never used a condom. Many also believed the myth that HIV/AIDS comes from outside Lebanon, a notion proven false by the fact that 52 percent of reported cases in 2007 affected Lebanese who had never traveled abroad.

"We need to concentrate on keeping our prevalence low, because if we don’t, it will be like a silent bomb. We need to work on awareness and promote preventive measures to enhance life skills, as well as increase access to services," said Lara Dabaghi, the UNAIDS project coordinator who headed the four studies for NAP. According to Dabaghi, evidence suggests that in low-prevalence countries, the most effective way to curb the spread of the virus is through interventions for awareness and prevention that target most-at-risk populations. According to a 2007 UNAIDS update report for the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region, the two main factors increasing the prevalence of HIV/AIDS are the use of contaminated paraphernalia to inject drugs and unprotected paid-for sex.

Designed to collect data and evaluate the effects of outreach with most-at-risk populations, the four case studies assessed recent interventions within the female sex worker population, the recently launched network of Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) centers in Lebanon, activities of HELEM, the first, above-ground Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans-sexual/Trans-gender organization (LGBT) in the MENA region, and the Drug Rehabilitation Center in Beirut’s Roumieh Prison run by Association Justice et Mis?ricorde (AJEM). In Lebanon, 5.3 percent of HIV cases in 2008 were attributed to injected drug use, while 54.7 percent of cases were contracted through heterosexual activity, and 81.9 percent of 2008 cases were reported by men.

Recalling that unprotected, paid-for sex is a high contributor to spreading the virus, the findings suggest a need to invest resources in outreach to female sex workers. In the study to measure the impacts of outreach on the female sex workers (FSW) population between 2001 and 2007, data was compared to evaluate changes in condom use and risky behavior. In 2001, only 28 percent of FSW reported that they would use condoms consistently with non-regular clients, and only 15 percent stated they would halt a transaction if the client refused protection. These percentages increased in 2008 to 34.9 percent and 24.5 percent respectively, suggesting intervention had a positive impact.

The study also revealed significant barriers for FSW to regularly use condoms, such as fear of imprisonment for carrying condoms and a lack of easy accessibility. Verbal negotiations used by the FSW to convince clients to use condoms also revealed the client’s three main concerns as pregnancy, infection, and exposure of his cheating behavior. The study therefore recommended that in addition to overcoming obstacles in reaching FSW, awareness efforts must also be made to reach the work-lord as well as the client, who primarily control the sexual situation. Further recommendations targeted the institutional level, advocating that other NGOs expand and decentralize services to respond to FSW needs, and that policy changes be made to decriminalize sex work, sensitize police forces to issues facing FSWs, and rectify counterproductive laws such as one that labels possession of a condom enough grounds for convicting a woman of being a sex worker.

On World AIDS Day 2007 NAP launched 19 VCT centers in Lebanon to provide information, education, and communication materials to increase HIV/AIDS awareness, along with confidential counseling services and a free, anonymous test for HIV with a result in just 15 minutes. The study assessed the scope of operations, and over the first six months, 1,011 individuals received services, with 11 who tested positive. Although everything is strictly confidential, the centers produced a wealth of anonymous data to analyze risky behaviors and attitudes within the population seeking VCT services. Interestingly, the majority of beneficiaries during this period were between 16 and 35 years old, with approximately 65 percent being male. A total of 60 percent had reached at least a university level of education, and nearly 75 percent were single. A full 49 percent reported never having used condoms with a steady partner, and 39 percent had not used condoms with non-steady partners during the last three months.

"If they come in and test negative, we take the opportunity to raise their awareness that unprotected sex puts them at risk for acquiring HIV, despite the fact that their results was negative … If they test positive, we counsel them on prevention as well as on how to lead a positive life … in addition to referring them to infectious disease physicians and support groups," Dabaghi said.

The case study on HELEM illustrated that an LGBT NGO can operate successfully in the MENA region and be instrumental in HIV/AIDS prevention for high-risk populations. In four short years HELEM, which opened in Beirut in 2004, already modified attitudes of Lebanese institutions and individuals regarding "alternative sexuality," as stated by its director. It also facilitated outreach efforts to "men who have sex with men" (MSM), while producing data that revealed a large gap between their level of awareness and behavior. Although the majority of MSM identified faithfulness to one uninfected partner and condom use as a means of prevention, only 4.1 percent perceived their behavior as highly risky, despite the fact that 33.3 percent had paid for sex with a male in the previous month, with only half practicing consistent condom use. The study attributed risky behavior in part to certain environmental constraints, like the fear of being caught in an illegal sexual act with a condom and facing blackmail or imprisonment. Recommendations to HELEM included different ways of optimizing organizational efficiency, reaching a greater number of individuals with information about HIV/AIDS, offering more comprehensive support services, and lobbying for policy change regarding LGBT rights.

Policy change appeared again as a central point of the final case study, which assessed the Drug Rehabilitation Center in Roumieh prison launched by AJEM in 2006. Although a law was passed in 1998 to send drug-users to a rehabilitation facility, the facility has yet to be built and drug-users are still being sent to prison. Documentation of AJEMs interventions cited in the study suggested that drug use remains possible even within prison, and that a dedicated center for drug-users would be able to address issues that lead individuals to substance abuse and guide them to a "drug-free" life, while a prison setting often worsens their condition. The prison is also a high-risk environment for HIV transmission. "There are many factors that increase behavioral risks for acquiring HIV such as over- crowdedness, lack of conjugal visits, absence of vocational trainings or extracurricular activities," Dabaghi stated.

Although Dabaghi expressed satisfaction concerning the value of the studies, she asserted that change needs to begin from within society, within institutions. "The more stigma that exists for most-at-risk populations, the more infections we will see … Policies that criminalize the activities of these populations turn them into hard-to-reach, stigmatized groups who become more prone to risky behavior," she said, stressing that keeping the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Lebanon low will require multiple efforts. "Decreasing stigma and discrimination, working on prevention and awareness, providing treatment, care, and support for people living with HIV and AIDS, advocacy for human rights, continuously monitoring and evaluating all programs and activities concerning HIV/AIDS, appropriately changing or enforcing existing laws … this is all essential," she said.

May 3, 2009 – The Huffington Post

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The Pink Army

by Meris Lutz
The first time he said it, his face was so passive I didn’t register what he was saying. "Did you get that?" Georges asked me. "They raped him." We were sitting in the courtyard of Helem, the Lebanese gay rights organization located in a beautiful French colonial building not far from downtown Beirut. Helem’s director, Georges Azzi, was helping me interview a young arrival from Baghdad.

I looked back at the slender 21-year-old with the confident voice and tried to determine what invisible force was holding him upright, helping him to speak. Three weeks of rape and torture at the hands of the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, followed by a month of living as a fugitive before fleeing to Lebanon would surely destroy a person, I thought. Then again, Iraq seems to have become a laboratory for testing the limits of human endurance, and the results are always sickeningly surprising.

"What happened to the other five gay men who were with you?" I asked. "They killed them," he said flatly. "I paid." Hassan (not his real name) is one of a handful of gay Iraqis who have sought refuge in Lebanon since the beginning of the year, when, according to Iraqis and human rights workers interviewed for this post, some sort of understanding was reached between the Iraqi government and the Mahdi Army to "cleanse" Iraq of homosexuals.

According to Hassan and M.M., another gay Iraqi who fled to Jordan and eventually made his way to Lebanon, Moqtada al-Sadr was given the green light from the government to attack homosexuals after video footage of a private party attended by gays, lesbians and transsexuals began circulating Iraq. Neither had attended the party or seen the footage, but several others confirmed they had heard the rumor. The BBC recently posted a number of videos depicting homosexuals and cross dressers being harassed by security forces.

The video provided a pretext for the partially disbanded and discredited Mahdi Army to reconstitute itself as morality force. Other armed groups were not far behind. "It’s creating a competition to see who can be the most righteous, the most steeped in blood," said Scott Long, the director of the LGBT Rights division of Human Rights Watch.

Since the killings were reported in the American press several weeks ago, the Iraqi government has vociferously denied any direct involvement. But according to Hassan, who was arrested at a government checkpoint, "The government and the Mahdi Army are working together to kill [homosexuals]." Long was also skeptical of the government’s claims. He stopped by Beirut on his way back from Baghdad to check on Hassan and the other Iraqis who have contacted Helem since arriving in Lebanon.

"[The Ministry of Interior] went very ostentatiously to the New York Times and said ‘gays are being targeted in Sadr City," Long said. "That’s for show; the reality is they are at minimum turning a blind eye." Long, along with another Human Rights Watch researcher, Rasha Moumneh, went to Iraq to investigate reports of organized campaign against homosexuality and other forms of gender deviation.

"It’s difficult to navigate sensationalist stories about gay violence In the Middle East, because they often serve political ends," said Moumneh. "I went in with some skepticism that it was a targeted campaign, but that changed very quickly." "The intensity and scope of the violence was astonishing," Long added. Although it is nearly impossible to determine an exact number of attacks that are motivated by sexual orientation, a doctor in Baghdad told Long it was in the hundreds. Morgues and hospitals are receiving more bodies of men who have been castrated, had their anuses glued shut or the word "pervert" carved into their skin, indicating they were not the victims of "ordinary" sectarian killing.

Hassan was targeted for his activism as much as his sexual orientation. Since 2005, he was been working with a London-based Iraqi LGBT rights organization to set up safe houses in Baghdad, which at one point housed over 40 individuals before the situation became so dangerous he shut them down. In 2006, he was detained and tortured briefly by the Mahdi Army, whose drug use has earned it the nicknamed the "pink army," a reference to the pink eyes of habitual hashish users. Since coming to Lebanon, he has registered with the United Nations and is currently awaiting resettlement in the US or Europe. As a victim of torture, his file receives priority attention, but in the meantime, he must wait in a country where homosexuality is illegal and violence against gays not unheard of.

"They don’t persecute people who translated for the Americans in Lebanon," said Long, explaining why homosexuals’ cases should be treated differently from other Iraqi refugees. "Of the countries surrounding Iraq, none are safe for homosexuals, so there is the added urgency of folks having to wait in countries where they are also at risk," he said.

Still, the Iraqis seem to be taking full advantage of the freedoms Lebanon does offer, often to the chagrin of Azzi, who, as director of Helem, has taken on the role of reluctant mother hen. Last week, they disappeared from his radar only to text him later from Acid, the notoriously decadent gay club just outside Beirut. "We couldn’t tell him beforehand-he would have worried about us," Hassan said, throwing his friend a sly smile. "Georges is our father, the leader of the revolution!"

"Yeah," Azzi answered, laughing. "We’re the real ‘pink army’.

May 10, 2009 – The Wall Street Journal

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Gay Rights in Lebanon Gain Traction

Beirut (AP) – In the Arab world, where several nations have seen killings of gay men in recent months, it can be startling to see a rainbow flag unfurled in public. But the region’s only overt gay rights organization, based in Lebanon, says it is slowly making progress in preventing discrimination and violence. Now the group, Helem, is preparing for a campaign to overturn the law that makes homosexuality illegal. In a dramatic step, Helem organized what may have been the only gay rights protest in the Arab world. In February, nearly two dozen gays and lesbians waved rainbow flags in a downtown Beirut square, carrying banners demanding homosexual rights. They protested what they said was the beating of two gay men by police.

It has been several years since a man was thrown in prison for being gay, said Helem activist Charbel Maydaa. But Lebanon’s Article 534, which prohibits having sexual relations that "contradict the laws of nature," remains a threat. "One of the major problems we face is that some parents threaten their gay children with article 534," he said. Helem is treading carefully. The group, founded in 2004, is talking with legal experts on how to approach lawmakers and lobby to have Article 534 abolished. Helem members would not comment on how they intend to carry out the campaign.

It’s a delicate process, given the deep-seated taboo in Arab countries against even discussing homosexuality. Everyone from religious leaders to family members condemn homosexuality. Human rights groups in other countries, like Egypt, often avoid dealing with issues touching on persecution of gays and lesbians. The region has seen a recent spike in killings of homosexuals, blamed by some on the influence of Islamic extremists. In Iraq, the bodies of six men believed to be gay were found in the Shiite district of Sadr City in March and April, after a Shiite cleric repeatedly condemned homosexuals during Friday prayer sermons.

A 44-year-old gay man was shot to death in the Yemeni city of al-Hisn in early March — believed to be the ninth homosexual killed in southern Abyan province since late last year. Islamic militants have become strong in the area. Governments have also conducted occasional crackdowns on gays — including a 2001 sweep in Egypt in which 52 men were arrested in a well-known gay hangout. In 2005, 35 men were arrested in Saudi Arabia for suspected homosexuality, according to international human rights groups. And almost all countries in the region have laws banning sexual relations "against nature" — used to prosecute gays. Lebanese lawmaker Ghassan Mokheiber, who is active on human rights issues, says it could take years to annul Article 534.

"We have to try convince some of our colleagues that this [homosexuality] is a normal matter," he said last week. "We have traditions that we have not been able to get beyond." But Lebanon also has a long tradition of liberalism. That allows some openness for gays and lesbians, particularly in the capital, Beirut, which is home to a number of clubs where gays mingle freely. Still, harassment occurs. Alexander, a gay man at the February protest, said he was recently beaten up by two men on a motorcycle as he walked in a Beirut suburb. The two attacked the 27-year-old after he ignored them.

"They broke my glasses, bruised my face and caused several injuries in my body," said Alexander, who spoke on condition he be identified by his first name only for fear of further harassment. "People in the street watched without coming to defend me." Most of Helem’s work has been behind the scenes, contacting police, religious leaders, employers, even parents to resolve specific cases of discrimination. Helem’s president, Georges Azzi, said treatment by police has improved in recent years.

But last year, a murdered man was discovered to have been gay, and police rounded up several of his friends for questioning, Mr. Azzi said. The men were forced to undergo rectal exams meant to determine if they were gay, then were "verbally and physically abused," he said. "It is a very humiliating test," Mr. Azzi said. "We intervened and got them out, but they were traumatized." Helem is funded by local and European non-governmental organizations. The word "Helem" is the Arabic acronym of Lebanese Protection for Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgenders and Queers. It is also Arabic for "dream."

August 2, 2009 – The New York Times

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Beirut, the Provincetown of the Middle East

by Patrick Healy
The pre-party began at 9 p.m. in Bertho Makso’s room at the Bella Riva Suite Hotel, and by 9:05 p.m. the air was awash in cologne, hair spray, cigarette smoke and gossip about the night ahead. Would a certain 20-something from West Beirut be at the beach party? Had the two men from Cairo arrived yet? Was the cute D.J. from Bardo, a gay bar here, going to be spinning? And did anyone need condoms?

The last question came from Bertho, a 28-year-old Lebanese tour operator who was the host of the main event that Thursday night in June: the Bear Arabia Mega Party, at the Oceana resort about 30 minutes south of Beirut. Scores of gay men — most of them “bears,” a term used the world over for heavyset, hairy guys usually older than 30 — were coming from across Lebanon and the Arab world, as well as Argentina, Italy, Mexico, the United States and elsewhere. Bertho had been picking them up at the Beirut airport since morning, and he looked exhausted as he handed out fistfuls of condoms to the dozen men in the room.

“So many questions today about what ‘gay Beirut’ is like,” he told me. “I’m just like, ‘Wait and see, you’ll like it, you’ll like it!’ ”

Tipping back a Red Bull on the sofa was Roberto Boccia, who was in from Rome for the event. In his 40s, wearing a white T-shirt and khaki shorts, Roberto said he was surprised by the brio of Beirut compared with gay life in Rome, and said he was going to spread the word back home. “Some of my friends are still scared to come here, because of the wars, and because it’s harder to be gay here than in Europe,” he said. “But I say, we have to win this. We’re gay, we overcome things.”

At that moment Bertho’s boyfriend, Rob, a very young Justin Timberlake look-alike, stumbled in from a side bedroom. He lifted his T-shirt, which read “Maniac 65,” to show off a sliver of his toned, tanned torso, and flashed a dazzling smile. The room went quiet. “O.K.,” Bertho said to no one in particular, “we should probably leave soon.”

While homosexual activity (technically, sexual relations that officials deem “unnatural”) is illegal in Lebanon, as in most of the Arab world, Beirut’s vitality as a Mediterranean capital of night life has fueled a flourishing gay scene — albeit one where men can be nervous about public displays of affection and where security guards at clubs can intercede if the good times turn too frisky on the dance floor. But even more than the partying, Beirut represents a different Middle East for some gay and lesbian Arabs: the only place in the region where they can openly enjoy a social life denied them at home.

Asu, a 35-year-old gay man visiting from Damascus — who, like many men interviewed in Beirut, asked that his surname not be published — said that only two close friends in Syria knew that he was gay and that there were no bars, clubs or cafes in Damascus where gay Syrians felt at ease.

“I thought I would meet other gay men at university in Syria, but it didn’t happen, and then I thought as an adult man living in Damascus that it would happen, but it hasn’t,” said Asu, who was nursing a club soda at Wolf, a gay-friendly bar near the American University in Beirut. “I’m 35 years old. I feel very lonely at home. There’s only the Internet for me, to e-mail with other gay men. The Internet, and Beirut. I try to come here every year now, because it is a relief.”

While homophobia is not a rampant problem in Jordan, according to Abdul-Azeem, a gay man from Amman, he has not found enough openness to start a relationship with a man. Instead, he said, he has been dating a Beirut man long-distance for the last nine months.

“We met on my last trip here,” said Abdul-Azeem, who is 25, and spoke during a visit to the new Beirut Arts Center on a 90-degree afternoon in June. “I hope we will be in love in the future. But I had to travel here to find a man who maybe I will love. I wish we were together every day.”

Gay life in this city is still inching out of the shadows, to be sure, but it seems to have developed a steady forward momentum since the end of Lebanon’s 15-year civil war in 1990 — and especially in the calm that has followed the brief 2006 war between Hezbollah forces and Israel.

Bars have opened, and old ones are into their fifth or sixth year of sponsoring annual parties and music festivals. Some yacht clubs and hotel pools have gained a reputation as popular spots for gay men to hang out and flirt. Internet chat sites like Manjam (www.manjam.com), self-described as “a gay social network for dating, work and travel,” have taken off; several gay men here had no inhibitions telling me their Manjam profile screen names. And, by anecdotal accounts, gay men and women from other Arab countries and the West are increasingly vacationing here — a choice that is all the more sexy and thrilling for some because they feel they are living on the edge and discovering a gay culture that is freshly evolving.

During the mid-1990s, a few small cafes in Beirut became popular gathering places for gay men — not only for groups of friends, but also for men who had chatted on the Internet and wanted to arrange a safe place to meet. One such spot, Café Sheikh Mankoush in the Hamra district, also installed computers that gay men used to chat online with others in Beirut, Bertho said.

In the years since, Lebanon has become one of the most liberal Arab counties when it comes to sexuality and sexual behavior, according to Michael T. Luongo, the editor of the 2007 book “Gay Travels in the Muslim World,” which was translated and printed in Arabic this summer by a Beirut publishing house, Arab Diffusion. (Travel guides to Beirut are not plentiful, particularly ones that might be helpful for gay and lesbian travelers, but one useful publication is “A Hedonist’s Guide to Beirut,” published by Hg2 Guides. It can be bought on Amazon for $14.78.)

“What’s interesting is that the Arab areas that were once controlled by the French, like Lebanon, are the ones with laws against homosexuality, because the French felt comfortable talking about sex,” Mr. Luongo said, “while the areas controlled by the British didn’t have those laws because they didn’t talk about sex. As a result, flowing from that French history is a relative familiarity with homosexuality in places like Lebanon. You have more gay life where the laws exist against it.”

Ricardo, a Spaniard in his 50s who now lives in Damascus, who traveled to Beirut for the party at Oceana, described the city as a refreshing getaway where he felt more confident being openly affectionate with his partner than he did in Syria.

“Gays who live in the Arab world or regularly visit have a good idea about the good places and the bad for gays,” Ricardo said. “Cairo — bad, some police harassment. Istanbul and Amman are better. Damascus — bad, with lots of police harassment too.”

In Iraq, for instance, conservative Muslim clerics have called for the “depravity” of homosexuality to be eliminated. Amnesty International said this year that up to 25 boys and men had been killed in Baghdad because they were gay or were believed to be gay. In Saudi Arabia, Yemen and several other countries, homosexual acts are punishable by death. In March, a 44-year-old gay man in the Yemeni city of al-Hisn was shot to death, one of several gay men reported killed since mid-2008.

Even in Beirut, a widely publicized beating of two gay men by police officers spurred the Lebanese organization Helem — the most visible gay rights group of any Arab nation — to hold the first major gay rights rally in the region in memory. The rally, in February, drew several dozen gay men and lesbians, and straight friends and supporters, to a downtown Beirut square, where they waved rainbow flags and banners calling for gay rights.

That rally — as well as Lebanon’s elections in June, won by moderate political parties — has buoyed the spirits of gay men and lesbians in Beirut, yet still they have hardly turned cavalier about their public behavior. Police officers sometimes seem to be on every block, and the military is omnipresent. Raed, a young gay man who works in Beirut, pointed out that a police booth is located close to Bardo, one of the most popular gay gathering spots on most nights of the week.

“They know that Bardo is a gay place, but they have never really blinked an eye about that,” Raed said. “When I go out from Bardo I always feel at ease hugging my friends — of course in a decent way — in front of the police. This is the kind of change I am talking about. Although the laws still incriminate homosexual acts, we as gays here don’t feel that much threatened by it anymore.”

Bardo doubles as a restaurant and bar and, like most gay nightspots in Beirut, it attracts a mixed crowd of men and women, gay and straight. As midnight approached at Bardo one weekend early this summer, I had to bob and weave among the 100 people squeezed in its two main rooms. One had cocktail tables and stools and a small bar rail, while the other was packed with tables on one end and a raised platform on the other, where men relaxed on plump pillows and talked with one another. Euro club music by David Guetta and electronica by Paul Van Dyk thumped from the speakers, and gorgeous waiters wearing T-shirts that read “Bardo of Love” served and laughed with the patrons.

As Chris Asy spun music (he being the “cute” D.J. being talked about at Bertho’s apartment), Bassil Zahr, a 23-year-old American of Lebanese descent who visits every year and his friend Lara Kays, who works at a radio station, shared mixed drinks as they filled me in on the Beirut scene. Occasionally Bassil would lean over to flirt with Chris, an Australian with curly golden locks, leaving Lara and me to talk.

“You come to a place like Bardo’s and you think there’s a lot of out gay men here, but that’s not quite right,” she said. “I have one other gay friend besides Bassil. Men don’t wear being gay on their sleeve, and I doubt any of them are out to their families. In America you have lots of places where gay guys hang out , and you have gay sports leagues in New York, don’t you? Here it’s only the bars where you see gay men.”

But Bassil described Beirut as fairly relaxed about sexuality and said that his friends who came from overseas were routinely surprised to find “a shockingly big and open gay culture” there.

“Most Americans I speak to are usually afraid to visit Lebanon because they still have an image of a war-torn Beirut,” he said. “They also may listen to the biased media that only reports on which bomb went off where or who died when. The truth is that you probably have a greater chance dying from a car accident then getting injured or killed in Lebanon.”

Near the exit at Bardo I met Steven Larkin, the co-founder of OUT Adventures, a Canadian-based travel company, who happened to be visiting the bar that night. He said he had come to assess Beirut as a possible destination for his clients. OUT Adventures now books tours in Egypt and Morocco, he said, and has been eyeing Beirut for some time to determine if the city is reasonably safe and sufficiently appealing for gay visitors.

“I really like the feel of this city, from what I’ve seen so far,” he said, before heading out to Wolf. “Guys are fun, smart, attractive. I can see a future for us here.”

There is no gay neighborhood in Beirut per se, and bar-hopping here is not for the unadventurous. A Bardo waiter told me about another gay spot, Life Bar, in the Ashrafieh section of Beirut a couple of miles away; the directions he gave me were, “Tell the cab driver to go just past the S.N.A. building — just pronounce it ‘Sna’ — to the street on a hill, turn right and go a half a block up.” While most bars and restaurants have addresses, Beirut is a maze of twisting side streets, many of them unmarked. My cab driver dropped me off at a spot where he thought Life Bar should be; it took another 10 minutes, and asking three different people for directions (two of whom wanted a “tip” for the service), to find it.

By 1 a.m. Life Bar was mostly empty; a few older men sat on the leather banquettes in the long, narrow space. One of the bartenders, who declined to give his name, said that the Life Bar did not publicize itself as a gay bar because doing so might attract extra scrutiny from the authorities.

One hotspot that the authorities — and gay Beirutis — know plenty about is Acid, the city’s best-known gay club, about 15 minutes west of Ashrafieh in the Sin El Fil neighborhood. Acid opened in 1998 and quickly emerged as the final stop of the night, as the dancing rages past dawn. As everyone told me, the club was wall-to-wall men, some of whom made out with one another without any evident inhibition. No one used to kiss inside clubs, Raed told me later, but now he regularly kisses his boyfriend when they are dancing.

“Of course every now and then I am told by the security guy there to stop, but they nevertheless don’t repress it violently,” Raed said. Fifteen minutes on the dance floor left me sweaty and with a ringing in my ears, so I stepped outside where two dozen men were smoking and chatting.

I struck up a conversation with one of them, Anton, who was alone, leaning against the wall of the club. A university student from Paris, he had arrived in Beirut a few days earlier with friends, but that night he had left them at Centrale — a sleek, popular French restaurant in Gemyazeh, designed by the architect Bernard Khoury — to meet up at Acid with a Lebanese man with whom he had chatted on Manjam.

The man had never shown up, and this amounted to strike two for Anton in his experience with Internet hook-ups in Beirut. His first experience was not only bad, he told me, but scary.

Any new user to Manjam is initially inundated with solicitations offering sex for money, Anton said, but after a while he began chatting with a man who called himself Marwan. The two discussed meeting but never made a plan; Marwan had asked for Anton’s cellphone number, but instead, for some reason, Anton gave him the name of his hotel. Around 4 the next morning, Anton said he was awoken by Marwan in his room, standing beside his bed; half-asleep, Anton rebuffed his request to spend the night, but soon was sufficiently awake to demand that he say how he gained access to his room and then screamed at him to leave. The man finally did.

“I still can’t believe I gave him the name of my hotel — stupid,” Anton said. “The front desk said they had no idea how he got in.” Anton and his friends changed hotels the next day.

While meeting men on the Internet is widely popular here, the Saint-Georges Yacht Club and the rooftop pool at the Palm Beach Hotel — only about 150 feet from each other, near the Corniche seaside promenade — have gained reputations as popular daytime cruising places for gay men, especially on Saturday afternoons. Saint-Georges charges $20 for a day pass, while the Palm Beach pool can be easily visited free.

One Saturday afternoon, the enormous square pool at Saint-Georges was full of a mix of groups of men and parents with children. Many more men lay out on lounge chairs and ordered bar service; one of them multitasked by applying pomade to his hair and suntan oil to his chest while answering his cellphone, which had the “Sex and the City” theme music as its ring tone.

Few men told me that they were traveling alone, and most expressed discomfort at the idea. Bertho Makso said that the bulk of his travel business (www.lebtour.com) involves couples and groups of friends who want to explore Beirut in a pack, and Bertho and others are increasingly designing tours and events to cater to them. While Beirut has some superb architecture and a handful of spots that are well visited — like the Corniche and the Roman bath ruins — the cultural life here is still in a stage of postwar development, with few museums or typical tourist destinations. It’s the clubs and the parties that Bertho has built his business around.

The Bear Arabia Mega Party proved to be a success, for instance. About 80 people had arrived by 11:30 p.m., dancing on an open-air patio under a Hawaiian-style thatched roof. The highlight was the contest to elect Mr. Bear Arabia. Six shirtless men entered the competition, and as they lined up shortly before 1 a.m. to answer questions from a table of judges, the partygoers were each given a paper ballot.

At 1:30 a.m. Bertho declared a winner: a husky 40-something named Clement. He was given a sash emblazoned with “Mr. Bear Arabia,” and draped it over his bare chest as other men offered congratulations. As the night neared a close, I met a young man named Mohammad who had come from Basra, in Iraq. He was standing by the edge of the patio, looking at the white moon in the cloudless sky. He said he was worn out from dancing — worn out, but “happy, so happy, to be here.”

“It’s terrible at home, they are killing us,” Mohammad said. “It’s only worse for gays after the war. Under Saddam, there wasn’t chaos, there wasn’t random killings. A friend of mine is a decorator in Basra, and his shop was burnt down — because he was effeminate, we think. “Beirut is freedom,” Mohammad continued. “I can be every part of Mohammad here.”

In A Bar, On The Dance Floor Of By The Pool
Getting There
Flying from New York to Beirut generally involves connecting in cities like Paris, Rome, London or Istanbul, and there are plenty of options on Delta, American, Air France, United and other carriers. The total flight time via Paris is roughly 12 hours, not including a layover.

In early June, a round trip on Air France to Beirut was $1,383. An indirect route — say, connecting in Dubai with a layover of several hours — would have lowered the fare by about $200. Fares for travel this month start at $1,248 according to a recent online search; summertime in Beirut is the high season, when airfares and hotel are usually at their most expensive.

The Beirut airport is about 20 minutes from downtown; taxi drivers will attempt to charge upward of $40 and argue that this is an “official” airport rate. Decline, and offer to pay $20 (American dollars are widely accepted throughout Beirut); if that price is not accepted, move on to the next driver until you find one who will accept that rate. (Depending on your patience, a driver eventually will.) Most hotels will also arrange pick-ups and drop-offs, starting at about $25.

Where To Stay
The Palm Beach Hotel (Ain el Mreisseh, downtown; 961-1-372-000; www.palmbeachbeirut.com) is a well-decorated and cozy 88-room hotel at the foot of the Corniche, on the Mediterranean. The rooms are reasonably sized, with cable television, wireless and private terraces. It has an excellent breakfast buffet, free to guests, and quite a good Indian restaurant. Best of all is the exquisite rooftop pool and bar area, which is busy through the day and past 2 a.m. most nights. A high season standard double starts at $170.

One of Beirut’s best-known marble-laden luxury hotels is the InterContinental Phoenicia (Ain el Mreisseh, downtown; 961-1-369-100; www.phoenicia-ic.com), a couple of blocks from the Palm Beach (many of the seaside hotels are clustered together). The rooms are quite spacious, and the hotel has a full-service spa, fitness center, indoor and outdoor pools, and restaurants. A double room starts at $420 in August.

Another luxury hotel, Le Gray (961-1-973-111; www.campbellgrayhotels.com), part of a group that includes One Aldwych in London and Carlisle Bay in Antigua, is scheduled to open in late September in the historic Solidere district in downtown Beirut. Rates for a double room will start at $390 a night.

For budget-minded travelers, among the comfortable options is the Bella Riva Suite Hotel (Caracas Street, Hamra; 961-1-754-343; www.bellarivahotel.com). Many of the rooms have a kitchenette and a small sitting-room area; the hotel also has a restaurant and coffee shop and privileges at a nearby beach resort and health club. A standard double during the summer starts at $85.

What To Do
Bardo, a gay bar and restaurant in Sanayeh, has emerged as a very popular gathering spot any night of the week. It is about 60 feet off Spears Road, about one block east of Sanayeh Gardens and almost directly across from the Haigazian University. As with many bars and clubs in Beirut, taxi drivers may know the spot simply by name.

Acid (961-3-714-678), a large gay disco in Beirut, in Sin El Fil next to the Futuroscope exhibition hall. Fridays and Saturdays are the busiest nights, especially after 1 a.m., with dancing past dawn.

Life Bar, a long, narrow bar in the Ashrafieh neighborhood on Liban Street behind the S.N.A. Building (pronounced “Sna”) is popular with gay and straight people. Particularly lively on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays before 11 p.m.

Wolf (beirut.wolfbars.com/contacts.html), a gay “bear” bar in Beirut, most lively on Friday and Saturday nights after 10 p.m. It’s on Mankhoul Street, in Hamra, very close to the American University of Beirut.

Saint-Georges Yacht Club (www.stgeorges-yachtclub.com), well marked near the InterContinental Phoenicia, is a popular hangout for gay men on Friday and Saturday afternoons (as is the rooftop pool of the Palm Beach Hotel). The large pool, nicely cushioned lounge chairs and well-staffed food and bar service are nice attributes as well. It costs $20 a day for entry for nonmembers.

The Beirut Art Center (off Emile Lahoud Avenue and across from the Beirut River, in Jisr El Wati; 961-70-262-112; www.beirutartcenter.org) is a major new year-round gallery space featuring Lebanese and international contemporary artists. Updated information on exhibitions here, as well as other cultural events in Beirut, can be found on the Arts page of The Daily Star, an English-language newspaper.

Where To Eat
Centrale (Mar Maroun Street, Saifi; 961-1 -575-858; www.centralerestaurant.com) has drawn international attention for its stunning open-plan space, designed by the architect Bernard Khoury — one of many architectural delights in this postwar city. The cuisine is traditional French; the menu specializes in meats and seafood, and usually changes seasonally. Dinner for two is about $120 with wine.

For lovers of hummus, kebbe, kafta, grape leaves and other traditional Lebanese fare, it’s rather hard to go wrong, but one dependably strong restaurant with local flavors is Karam Beirut (Bazerkan Street, downtown; 96-1-1991-222). The local olives and memorable baklava are bonuses. Lunch or dinner is about $35 for two.

Patrick Healy, a reporter for the Arts section of The Times, covers theater.

August 5, 2009 – GlobalGayz.com

7
Beirut, Lebanon: “Provincetown of the Middle East”—Not!
(A critique of article #6 above)

by Richard Ammon
I just finished reading (again) the lead article in the Sunday New York Times travel section about gay Beirut entitled “Provincetown of the Middle East”. My reaction is mixed: it’s affirming to see the nation’s leading ‘paper of record’ giving so much ink to the ‘homosexual lifestyle’. It wasn’t always so as recently a decade ago. Today the Times even prints same-gender marriages and commitment ceremonies.

Sunday’s story was a major spread about Beirut—and it environs– and the gay party-makers, local and foreign, who gathered for a theme party–the Bear Arabia Mega Party at a resort south of Beirut.

The story mentions gays (mostly Arab) who like Beirut for the freedom of the nightlife when they can remove for a few hours the mask of Islam they live behind for most of their lives. Lebanon is more tolerant than anywhere in the Middle East except Israel. (Nevertheless, a visitor cannot travel directly from Israel to Lebanon; rather one must go through Jordan or another country and cannot show an Israeli passport stamp.)

The story, earnestly written by Patrick Healy, a gay reporter on the Times staff, based on talks (and partying) with people from the gay unfriendly countries of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq as well as (slightly) more tolerant Turkey and Italy (moderately) to find friendship, sex and like-minded support.

The writer also offered a small comment about the gay rights group Helem in Beirut. But this was not the focus of the piece. It was about the party scene—meeting up and going out to dance and drink and hooking up at the chic and trendy watering holes in that city–and voting for Mr. Bear Arabia.

For most of the expansive three-full-pages–in a 12-page travel section of the Times–gay meant party; it meant scene; it meant looking good and hoping for Mr. Right Now.

Not Enough
To quote a song, ‘is that all there is?’ What’s missing for me is substance.

There is a cultural vacuum in the story. Where is our substance, our meaning as a community; what core efforts and awareness are we instilling into our own community so that the New York Times readers and the Beirut party-goers don’t finish reading or dancing without knowing about a single queer activist or signing a petition, or donating money to help keep a gay rights organization such as Helem vital as a lobbying force against discrimination.

What’s missing in this and stories like this (i.e. Passport and OutTraveler magazines) is the connection between the late night titillation of sounds and lights and the daytime human rights activism behind the scene or in the halls of parliament. That is, between the colorful sweaty nights and the ‘realpolitik’ of persecuted LGBT individuals in the Middle East.

Media has a responsibility to change stereotypes, to deepen understanding, to integrate different truths. Yes, we party (a few if us overall) but we also suffering isolation and live in fear of rejection or abuse.

The Times story was invariably male, and predominantly middle class. But that is not who most LGBT people are there; it is not how people identify, and to focus predominantly on that part of our community is not authentic. Where are the lesbians and bisexuals and trans people as the men dance the night away?

Such party-scene stories depoliticizes gender and sexuality in the name of journalistic simplicity and ‘fun’. It is dishonest and disingenuous because our homosexual presence in any culture is unavoidably political. Homosexuality in any society is a major litmus test of how it treats its minorities and in turn a significant measure of how truly civilized a culture is.

I think it is incumbent upon writers to create inclusive reports that raise awareness among ourselves (gay men, lesbians, trans and bisexuals) as well as the larger society. Mr. Healy is a skilled and politically aware writer who has written ‘one half’ of the story about gay Beirut. The other half, or the other three-fourths, about the uncomfortable reality of daytime homosexuality in Lebanon is still wanting.

As Rasha Moumneh of Human Rights Watch eloquently said at the recent OutGames Human Rights Conference in Copenhagen, “it is incumbent upon us, as LGBT activists, to know, to seek out information about the world we build our activism around, to understand its complexities and intersections and to create a progressive and inclusive politics of justice, because the lies we are fed come in so thick and so heavy that it takes energy and commitment to sift through them to get to our truths. And if we don’t, we do harm, to ourselves, to our communities, to the people we are standing in solidarity with, and to our movements for social justice. That, to me, is energy worth spending.

I would like to see Mr. Healy turn his journalistic hawk-eye in this direction and offer a reader a full-frontal view of this alleged ‘Provincetown’.

August 10, 2009 – The Daily Star

8
Lebanese rights group fighting gay stigma surrounding AIDS

by Ali Beydoun – Special to The Daily Star
Beirut – “The stereotype that AIDS is a ‘gay disease’ is a stereotype of the West,” says Georges Azzi, president of HELEM, a Beirut-based rights organization. “I didn’t have this idea that AIDS was a gay disease until I went to France,” Azzi said. He argued that because Lebanese society has been historically closed to discussing sex-related topics, there was insufficient public discussion to even arrive at the misconception that most people diagnosed with HIV are gay. However, with increasing HIV and AIDS awareness, the stereotype is now on the rise.

Azzi said that he has noticed in recent months that religious websites that discuss HIV and AIDS are identifying homosexuals as the target community for the virus. The rise of the stereotype correlates to the increasing awareness in Lebanon, on the part of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the National AIDS Program (NAP), as the WHO lists three groups as the most “at risk” for the disease: sex workers, drug users, and lastly, homosexuals.

With the clinical labeling of homosexuals as a group most susceptible to the virus, Azzi believes the stereotype that AIDS is a “gay disease” is gaining prominence in Lebanon, apparently a negative side-effect of increased awareness. While Azzi concedes that homosexuals are an “at risk” group for HIV, he argues that legal discrimination in Lebanon hinders progress on in getting people tested.

Article 534 of the Penal Code criminalizes “sexual acts against nature,” including same-sex acts. MSM’s – men who have sex with men – in “gay” cruising areas are often afraid to carry condoms with them because, if caught, police can use this as evidence of their sexual behavior. HELEM, the Lebanese non-profit group working on improving the social and legal status rights of gay and lesbian people, has also found it difficult to even pass out condoms in gay clubs, as many establishments don’t want to attract the attention of the police.

Meanwhile, the NAP’s statistics for the last three years indicate a jump in cases of gay people being diagnosed with the virus, moving from a minority to a slight majority. In 2007, about 52 percent of cases were heterosexual while only 26 percent were homosexual (the rest being “bisexuals” or “unidentified,” standing at around 10 percent each). Homosexual cases jumped to 49 percent of the total the following year, compared to heterosexual cases (34 percent).

The percentages are shifting again this year, standing at 40 percent (heterosexual) and 34 percent (homosexual). The 2007-2009 averages stand at 41 percent of cases involving homosexuals, and 30 percent affecting heterosexuals. Azzi attributes the jump in recorded cases of gay men with the disease to increased awareness, meaning its members are more willing to get tested than those outside the group,. HELEM has a policy of testing test anyone, irrespective of sexual orientation.

Although HELEM is specifically an lesbian and gay rights organization, Azzi estimates that last year only half of those tested by his group were gay. While the association of HIV and AIDS with homosexuality might not be as prominent in Lebanon as elsewhere, the taboos remain. Rabih Maher, who heads the HIV outreach program at HELEM, said most people with HIV don’t tell their families that they have the virus due to the stigma involved.

However, some less negative experiences are noticed by activists. A representative from HELEM’s outreach program cited the example of an HIV patient who informed family members and also mentioned that they contracted the disease from same-sex intercourse. While the family was shocked at first, rather than reacting negatively, if they showed great support, and now even attends doctor’s visits with them. But in general, the situation is difficult for those who contract HIV from a same-sex experience, as they have to “come out” about not one, but two taboos.

The HELEM representative believes that in the positive situation he cited, the contraction of the virus helped the family accept the fact that their child had a same-sex experience, because of the “crisis situation” he or she was in. “Being sick is a priority over being gay,” the representative added, explaining that this family was willing to set aside the backlash against their child’s sexual orientation for the more crucial matter of their health.

While heterosexuals may be less likely to get tested as a result of a lack of awareness, it’s certainly a good idea for anyone to pay a visit to HELEM. If a person tests positive, HELEM provides a referral for the individual to receive treatment at Beirut’s American University Hospital. Patients referred by HELEM pay a fee of around LL10,000 to cover basic hospital costs. HELEM also offers counseling services and support groups for those who test positive for HIV, irrespective of sexual orientation.

11 January 2010 – ILGA Asia

9
10 Lebanese LGBT Publications in Lebanon

This week and next, we’ll be looking back at a decade of LGBT activism in Lebanon, counting down our favorite moments and analyzing our greatest accomplishments. As we turn a new page of a new year, we must also acknowledge all the work it took to get us here. We start with the Top 10 Lebanese LGBT publications that came out over the past 10 years. I cannot but stand in awe of the amazing feat accomplished collectively by individuals and organizations working for LGBT justice in Lebanon. Here they are in chronological order:

1. Raynbow.org’s Human Rights and Health Monitor is a fantastic archive of media clippings dating back to 1998 and throughout which one can trace the public face of the LGBT movement in Lebanon. Hundreds of links to press articles and stories are documented in this commendable effort by Raynbow.

2. Barra Magazine is the mother of all Arab gay magazines still sought out today by LGBTs who were inpired by the courage of the Barra editorial team headed by Munir Abdallah back in 2005. Three issues, the last of which came out in May 2006, were published by Helem and thousands of copies were distributed by volunteers in Beirut streets and bookstores. Download issues zero, one, and two.

3. Rouhab Al-Mithliyya: Mawaqef wa Ara’ (Homophobia: Positions and Opinions) is probably the most under-publicized piece of historic work to ever come out on homosexuality in Lebanon. The brainchild of Mazen Khaled and published by Helem & La CD-Theque in May 2006, Rouhab Al Mithliyya is a collection of essays from prominent Lebanese writers and thinkers such as Rabih Alameddine, Hanan Al-Sheikh, Omar Nashabe, Marie-Rose Zalzal and others. The essays critically discuss homophobia from sociological, literary, legal, psychological, and human rights perspectives. At the time of its publication, the book broke all publishing taboos and placed local voices for LGBT justice on Arabic bookshelves for the first time in our region. You can buy it online here.

4. Souhaq is the smallest of our featured publications and only came out in two issues, its first only 4 pages – barely 1000 words in total. But it led, irreversibly, to dangerous awakenings: the lesbians had found a voice of their own. The zine called for the formation of Helem Girls in September 2006, a women-only group inside Helem, and spread like a virus across what was then an invisible network of lesbians. Download Issue 1 here.

5. Koutayyib Mish Aan AnNabat (2007) is the most creatively laid-out booklet in our collection (see excerpts here) on the topic of sexual health for LGBTs. Covering not only HIV and STDs but also mental health, it was the first manual of its kind to approach same sex relations from a positive and affirmative angle. Contact Helem for free copies.

6. Ouhibouhoum… Wa Lakin (I Love Them… But) is a parental guide to understanding homosexuality, a publication ahead of its time for Lebanese families. Launched by Helem and SIDC in a press conference last September, the booklet walks parents through different answers to questions of denial, anger, and rejection to reach acceptance through understanding the facts about human sexuality. Contact Helem for free copies.

7. Bareed Mista3jil (Mail in a Hurry) was the ground-breaking book of 41 true stories from Lebanon’s queer women and transgender communities, published by Meem in May 2009. Hundreds attended the first reading in Beirut and other readings have been staged in Amman, Ramallah, Amsterdam, New York, San Francisco, and Brussels. A best-seller at Virgin Megastores and Antoine Libraries across Lebanon, Bareed Mista3ijl has sold over 3,000 copies to date.

8. Bekhsoos.com (that’s us!) came in on September 7, 2009 to introduce a new dimension to our LGBT publication timeline, publishing weekly with news, reviews, columns, opinion pieces, creative work, reports, features, comics, and much more, covering not only Lebanon but many Arab countries as well. Read over 60,000 times to date, Bekhsoos.com positioned itself as a viable and consistent news source and archive on Arab queerness. Read some of our 2009 statistics here.

9. Homosexualities and Bisexualities: Myths and Facts very recently came out by Dr. Maha Rabbath, a psychotherapist who works with the LGBT community at Helem. As the title indicates, the booklet aims to de-mystify misconceptions and prejudgments on human sexuality, setting the record straight scientifically, pscyhologically, and socially. Contact Helem for free copies.

10. Al Ilaqat Al Mithliyya Fee Qanoun Al Ouqoubat (Homosexual Relations in Criminal Law) prepared by Maitre Nizar Saghieh, long-time defender of human rights in Lebanon just came out at the very end of 2009 and adds a much-needed comprehensive legal study to our list of publications. We just covered the launch of booklet in our last Bekhsoos issue and Helem just made the study downloadable online here.

There you have it, 10 must-read publications for your reading list in 2010.

June 27, 2010 – AFP

10
Transsexual’s memoirs breaks new ground in Arab world

by Natacha Yazbeck (AFP)
Beirut — In a daring, unprecedented move, a pioneer of the Arab world’s underground transgender movement has released her memoirs, recounting her struggle to become a woman against all odds. "Mouzakarat Randa al-Trans", or "The Memoirs of Randa the Trans", is a brutally honest narrative that traces Randa’s battles with family, society, country, religion and abuse in her native Algeria.

Co-authored by Lebanese journalist Hazem Saghieh, the 144-page book released this year in Beirut unflinchingly details Randa’s life from childhood as a male to her first sexual experience with a man and the consequences of her choice to live as a male-to-female transsexual. "At some point I put two bottles of pills on my dresser and knew that I had a choice," Randa, who was named Fuad at birth, told AFP in Beirut. "I could either die now by taking the entire vial of medication, or start on the vial of hormones and live — as a woman and with the possibility that I might die at the hands of someone else."

Long-running death threats last year forced her to leave her homeland and, with an expired European visa and friends in nearby Lebanon, Beirut seemed the obvious choice. "I had been receiving threats for some time," she said. "General security in Algeria had built a file on me, and I had been ‘warned’ by certain Islamist groups. Last April, I was given a 10-day ultimatum: leave or be killed."

Thin and soft-spoken with long dark hair, Randa today lives as a woman in Beirut where she is preparing to complete the surgical process that will transform her into a female. While Lebanese law technically criminalizes same-sex relationships, it makes no mention of sex reassignment surgery. And although patriarchal values still hold sway over this small eastern Mediterranean country, Beirut’s relatively tolerant society and the stellar reputation of Lebanese doctors have encouraged persons of different sexual orientations and identities to seek refuge in the vibrant city.

Noel Nakhoul, a counselor who works with people questioning their sexual identity, says that while there are no reliable studies, Lebanon is the most popular country for marginalised communities in the Arab world. "Generally they feel that it is a more democratic country, at least socially," Nakhoul told AFP. "It’s known for its multiplicity, especially when the other choice is totalitarian countries like Iran."

While Iran punishes homosexual conduct with execution, sex change is permitted by religious edict in the Islamic republic, which is reputed to have the highest rate of sex reassignment surgeries after Thailand. Surgeon Antoine Eid estimates that one in 50,000 people in Lebanon has some degree of gender dysphoria syndrome, or discontent with their biological sex. "People are increasingly coming to Lebanon for these surgeries because the law does not forbid it and the medical sector is highly regarded," Eid, who had no available statistics, told AFP. "But we are very selective in who is a candidate for surgery, and psychiatric consultation for at least one year is a must before the decision is made."

And in the tightly knit societies of the Arab world, Eid insists his patients secure their families’ support before embarking on the long, painful process. But for Randa — who laughingly refuses to disclose her age but concedes she is "30-something" — family approval was out of the question. "Even today, I cannot tell you how many times I want to call my sisters, but I always dial the number and hang up before it rings. I would ruin their lives," she said, fighting back tears. "I lost everything. I have nothing more to lose. What have I got to lose if society rejects me?"

Lebanon is home to the Arab world’s leading lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights group HELEM, and a number of gay and gay-friendly bars have flourished in the capital. HELEM now regularly hosts events on the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO), but while Beirut is more liberal than its neighbours in the largely conservative Middle East, it remains far from a tolerant city. Even so, the brutal beating by police of two men for alleged gay behaviour last year did not deter HELEM supporters from taking to the streets to mark IDAHO this May, carrying banners that read "Ana shazz," or "I am queer," and "Barra!" or "Out!"

Through HELEM, Randa said she is fighting to raise public awareness about and acceptance of transsexual persons. "Sometimes I want to give up and leave, but I know that if I leave, I’ll be back," she said. "Freedom is never given to you," she added. "You have to reach out and take it, sometimes no matter the risks. And we can’t stop fighting now."

16 July 2010 – LGBT Asylum News

10a
Transsexual’s memoirs breaks new ground in Arab world

by Natacha Yazbeck (AFP)
In a daring, unprecedented move, a pioneer of the Arab world’s underground transgender movement has released her memoirs, recounting her struggle to become a woman against all odds. "Mouzakarat Randa al-Trans", or "The Memoirs of Randa the Trans", is a brutally honest narrative that traces Randa’s battles with family, society, country, religion and abuse in her native Algeria.

"People ask you why anyone would give up the privileges men have to be ranked even worse than women who were born as women," Randa said. "We need to make people understand that the word transsexual is not about sex and it’s not about pleasure," she added. "It’s about identity." Noel Nakhoul, a counselor who works with people questioning their sexual identity, says that while there are no reliable studies, Lebanon is the most popular country for marginalised communities in the Arab world.

"Generally they feel that it is a more democratic country, at least socially," Nakhoul told AFP. "It’s known for its multiplicity, especially when the other choice is totalitarian countries like Iran." While Iran punishes homosexual conduct with execution, sex change is permitted by religious edict in the Islamic republic, which is reputed to have the highest rate of sex reassignment surgeries after Thailand. Surgeon Antoine Eid estimates that one in 50,000 people in Lebanon has some degree of gender dysphoria syndrome, or discontent with their biological sex. "People are increasingly coming to Lebanon for these surgeries because the law does not forbid it and the medical sector is highly regarded," Eid, who had no available statistics, told AFP.

"But we are very selective in who is a candidate for surgery, and psychiatric consultation for at least one year is a must before the decision is made." And in the tightly knit societies of the Arab world, Eid insists his patients secure their families’ support before embarking on the long, painful process. But for Randa — who laughingly refuses to disclose her age but concedes she is "30-something" — family approval was out of the question.

"Even today, I cannot tell you how many times I want to call my sisters, but I always dial the number and hang up before it rings. I would ruin their lives," she said, fighting back tears. "I lost everything. I have nothing more to lose. "What have I got to lose if society rejects me?" Lebanon is home to the Arab world’s leading lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights group HELEM, and a number of gay and gay-friendly bars have flourished in the capital.

HELEM now regularly hosts events on the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO), but while Beirut is more liberal than its neighbours in the largely conservative Middle East, it remains far from a tolerant city. Even so, the brutal beating by police of two men for alleged gay behaviour last year did not deter HELEM supporters from taking to the streets to mark IDAHO this May, carrying banners that read "Ana shazz," or "I am queer," and "Barra!" or "Out!" Through HELEM, Randa said she is fighting to raise public awareness about and acceptance of transsexual persons.

"Sometimes I want to give up and leave, but I know that if I leave, I’ll be back," she said. "Freedom is never given to you," she added. "You have to reach out and take it, sometimes no matter the risks. And we can’t stop fighting now."

Winter 2010 – jurriaanteulings.nl

11
Gay Life In Lebanon, an Updated Story

by Jurriaan Teulings
The following excerpts are from the complete story:

The Law
Article 534 of the Lebanese Penal code echoes an old Victorian law that prohibits having sexual relations ‘contradicting the laws of nature’. As elsewhere in the world, it is the product of good old imperialism, implemented by the French (who enjoyed a more liberal Napoleonic Code themselves) to appease religious folk when they left. India recently got rid of a very similar law, backed by the Ministry of Health, successfully arguing it hindered Aids prevention. The Lebanese gay rights organisation Helem is seeking out a similar route. In practice though, the law is rarely applied. Nowadays, anything re- lated to ‘criminal’ sexual behaviour is generally resolved within the police station; the courts won’t touch it

Read
In addition to any guidebooks you might read ‘A Hedonist’s Guide to Beirut’, by Ramsay Short is a good start. Pick up one of the novels by the Lebanese American writer Rabih Alameddine. His 1998 debut, Koolaids: The Art of War takes place in the two ‘war zones’ he calls home, San Francisco and Beirut. One is ravaged by AIDS, the other by civil war. Rabihalameddine.com

Site
Lebtour.com offers travel advice and an extensive gay guide of Beirut. The same people organise very popular Bear Arabia-events twice a year: check www. beararabia.org. They’re very knowledgeable and fun and have big plans for Beirut: the owner Bertho Makso expressed his vision to organise a (gay) love pride parade in the near future

Stay
The Gefinor Rotana is one of the most conveniently located hotels in Beirut, within walking distance from the Corniche (the seaside promenade) and its beach clubs, the shops and restaurants of Rue Hamra and Downtown Beirut, and some of the most popular gay-friendly places in town. The staff are very welcoming and knowledgeable – they’ll get you into the best night- clubs before you know it. The rooftop pool is something else. It has one of the best views of the Mediterranean and the green campus grounds of the American University of Beirut. Rotana.com (Photo of the dj in the window of the cramped but very atmospheric Torino Express – the first hip bar to set the trend on Gemmayzeh’s buzzing rue Gouraud.)

Listen
One of the most interesting music bands to come out of Beirut lately is Mashrou’ Leila. The seven members present an ideal model of what Beirut can be: a proud, liberal Arab place, transcending different backgrounds, religions and sexual preferences. In a city where most music is divisive or activist, their lyrics are refresingly open-minded. And what doesn’t hurt either: the attractive lead singer is openly gay. Highly recommended. check out their Facebook Fanpage or Myspace.com

Place
If you visit only one gay-friendly place in Beirut, let it be Bardo, across from the Haigazian University in Hamra. A very decent restaurant in the early evening, an energetic bar full of beautiful people and strong cocktails after dinner, this is the welcoming place you might find yourself return to several nights of your stay – if only as a kick-off to a long night of debauchery.
Other places to check out: Behind the Green Door (porn inspired bar in Gemmayzeh); Barometre (very atmospheric, very intellectual leftist Arab bar near the American university in Hamra – great cheap food, too), and Acid (somewhat tacky, but still… you can’t miss the biggest gay club in the Middle East).

See complete story.

29 October 2010 – GME

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On Lebanon’s road ahead:Acid, homophobic jibes and liberalism

by Dan Littauer, Editor and AT, Beirut correspondent of Gay Middle East
It has been over a month and Acid, Beirut’s famous LGBT night club, has remained firmly shut. “AT”, our Beirut correspondent, has received an unconfirmed (with the owners, who could not be reached) report that the club, in fact, has unfortunately been shut for good. According to the report, upon its closure in early September, about 10 people were detained for drug possession. It remains unclear, however, if charges were brought forward against some or any of them. If this report is true then indeed this seems very uneven handed, why target Acid and not the many other (non LGBT) clubs where drugs are not an unknown commodity, to put it mildly? It seems very likely, as we reported on the 13.9.2010, that the closure was initially motivated by greed. AT then reported that a building in the vicinity of the club was offered for sale to the club owner who refused. The closure came after the “neighbours” (from the same building) complained about “noise” level, which is curious as the club has no other building near it and there were no previous complaints about “noise”. AT rightly identified this as an attempt to force the club owner to purchase the property.

Since then things have escalated somewhat around the whole affair. On September 21st, the Lebanese tabloid, Al-Jaras magazine published a horrendous homophobic and scathing attack on Lebanon’s LGBT community using the Acid story as its spearhead: “I closed down Acid Nightclub” read it’s cover, quoting Abdo Chawoul, “and if they think of opening it, we are bringing bulldozers and demolishing it”. He bizarrely claimed he was behind the closure. If the two reports AT received are correct than his hateful claim is patently false. In the article, homophobe journalist Diana Wehbe uses pejorative terms such as “shazzeen” and “sou7akiyyat”, extremely offensive to any Arabic speaker (see BeirutBoy’s blog). She clearly saw herself on a mission to “clean” up Beirut from sexual deviants, and lamented its hosting an IGLTA fam trip. She further collated the tiring cliché that homosexuality is a “western” disease and equating it with the depraved liberalism of the “enemy” city of Tel-Aviv. To Diana and her editor Nidal Al Ahmadiye, “Acid” represented all this and its closure was a welcome launch-pin and a call to arms for their “mission”.

Beksoos promptly responded to the article critically discussing the ideas expressed in it and highlighting their flaws. Al-Jaras was not only unrepentant in its response but went on to threaten to out the commentator of Beksoos and publish her picture!! Sensationalism, hatred and homophobia at its worst is only what can describe Al-Jaras’s editorial policy. We whole heartedly agree with the title awarded by the Lebanese LGBT Media Monitor to Al-Jaras’s editor Nidal Al Ahmadiye the “Queen of Homophobia”. All Lebanese LGBT related groups and organisations called for the boycott of Al-Jaaras.

However the controversy did not end there! Alaa Merheb from Bisara7a wrote another horrendously homophobic article using derogatory terms, claiming the unnaturalness of men behaving like women of gays, and women behaving like men of lesbians. He lamented that this is a growing vice in Lebanon. His solution was to “clean” Lebanon of such deviants and send them to the corrupt west where they belong – thus ridding Lebanon of such “anomalies”! The article was also critically discussed by the Lebanese LGBT Media Monitor. The Monitor gave the well deserving title “Homophobe” to Bisara7a’s editor, Patricia El-Hashem.

While Acid may have closed down for sure, it certainly was not the making of such homophobic articles and sensationalist hateful journalism. Such horrific attacks in the media should be condemned for openly inciting hatred. It appears that slowly but surely Lebanon’s LGBT communities are gaining more visibility and strength. Unfortunately this attracts reactionary commentary from journalists thinking they can capitalise on hatred. Ironically, by doing so, they are contributing to make the debate on sexualities public and inevitably place themselves on the defensive. This, on the long run, we believe, will create more spaces and opportunities for debate of more sympathetic and educated journalists. While Acid may have closed, Lebanon’s road to more informed and liberal attitudes is firmly taking shape, despite the many challenges facing it now and in the future.

21 November 2010 – GME

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Beirut – The Super Cool Gay Capital of the Arab World

by Dan Littauer, GME Editor
Tonight two new parties open their doors for gays and lesbians of Beirut and beyond! RGB, an extraordinary and pulsating party just relocated from Amman to Beirut and has its home in the trendy Sin el Fil area facing the Habtoor Hotel. But don’t go there before midnight, this place will start late and finish early morning, and tonight is going to be packed!

A mere 10 minutes away from RGB, on Brumana Hill, another new place will open tonight called Vice Versa! From what we hear, the interior is ammmmmmazing!!!!!! What’s cool is that it opens as early as 7PM as bar, but later at night it turns into a stunning club with uplifting and wild music!

In both venues, Arabic will be as well played as the latest international vibes. Still you have Bardo, Milk, Life Bar, Dark Box, and many others outstanding options. Want more options? Yalla!!! Tonight, Robin Gibb, ex Bee Gees’ vocalist, is giving a super camp and cool evening of all of the Bee Gees’ greatest hits! This fabulous international concert will take place at Biel with more than 15,000 people expected to attend. Three amazing NEW options in one night, can this be true? Sure! It’s cosmopolitan Beirut – the super cool gay capital of the Arab world!

December 2010 – Gay Middle East

12
Annual survey of safer sex in Lebanon

Over a year ago GME conducted a survey on safer sex among gay and bi males in Lebanon. Here are the findings of the survey for 2010. Sample: 700 men surveyed.

Change from 2009:
The findings are considered excellent even compared with similar survey results conducted among the LGBT communities in the west. There was no radical change from last year’s findings. The only change worth commenting on is in the section “Refused to answer” which was reduced by 1.5%, which was redistributed with a 1% increase in “Only safer sex” and .5% increase in “never practice safer sex”.

Summary:
The last decade is characterised by a weakening of self-discipline and safer sex practices in every western nation and especially in their urban centres. Recently the U.S. ministry of health published a finding that one of five gay or bi men residing in its main urban centres is HIV positive. We hope that Lebanon and the rest of the Middle east eludes this worrying trend.

These results are very encouraging. However it is worth recalling the fact that many who practice unsafe sex, if occasional or habitually do not necessarily disclose this and answer the survey insincerely. Furthermore everyone needs to remember that in order to be infect suffice a single act of unsafe sex… We call to all the related organisations in Lebanon to continue and invest resources in preventative campaigns, the only definite way to combat the spread of the virus and AIDS related illnesses. We hope for even better results next year! Meanwhile stay safe!

February 2, 2011 – Socialist Worker

13
The LGBT struggle in Lebanon

The mainstream media–and some gay rights organizations–would have people believe that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the Middle East need the West to "save" them from the violent backwardness and homophobia of the region. But rarely, if ever, do they ask LGBT people organizing in the Middle East about how they are fighting for their rights.

Ghassan Makarem, the executive director of the Lebanese LGBT rights group HELEM (the Arabic acronym for Lebanese Protection for Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgenders), talked to Frankie Cook in August 2010 about the struggle for human rights in Lebanon and beyond.

How, When and why did HELEM or the LGBT movement in Lebanon emerge?

HELEM started around 2001-2003. Before that there was something called Club FREE, which focused on socializing amongst LGBT people. Then people got together to talk about doing political things.

Several activists from different backgrounds came together to form HELEM. The discussion began informally when a number of us were on the steering committee for the Lebanon antiwar committee against the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. In 2004, we formalized the group and registered with the government and rented a space.

There were several reasons why HELEM was formed. One was that there are still laws that police and criminalize sexuality in Lebanon, such as Article 534 of the Penal Code, which criminalizes homosexual acts or "sexual intercourse contrary to nature."

Aside from this obvious reason, there were several other factors that led to the development of HELEM. Among them was the Queen Boat affair in Egypt in 2001, in which dozens of gay men were arrested and tried in court after a raid on the gay-friendly disco boat, which really sent shock waves through much of the Lebanese gay community.

What you can do?

To find out more information about HELEM, visit their Web site.

Another issue that was part of the forming of HELEM was the beginning of interference among European LGBT groups into the rights of LGBT Lebanese, attempting to speak for them. A lot of this interference was very politicized around U.S. and UN intervention–painting human rights, women’s rights and in this case gay rights in Lebanon and the Arab world as needing to be brought about by the UN and the U.S.

We feel that a lot of this interference had to do with what was going on in this region, that it was justification for U.S. and UN intervention. A number of Westerners were using the issue of human rights in the Arab and Muslim world as a justification for intervention as they did in Afghanistan with women’s rights.

Alongside this, there was also a lot more visibility among the LGBT community and awareness of the violations of their rights. In 2001, there was an attempt to reform the Penal Code even more negatively, extending the scope of Article 534 to not only criminalize sexual intercourse but to include any form of sexual contact, not just intercourse–similar to what they had in Nazi Germany and other European countries in the past.

WHAT IS HELEM fighting for? What are the biggest issues you organize around?

THE BIGGEST issue we are fighting for is the end to discrimination and for basic rights. We stand against any laws that seek to control or criminalize sexuality or public morality. This also involves working toward access for LGBT people to health services, such as safe-sex education, HIV prevention and other forms of health and well-being.

HOW DOES HELEM organize to fight discrimination and homophobia? What are your strategies? How do you get people organized?

HELEM IS a membership organization. Internally things are democratically done; members make the decisions. Within the organization, we have a number programs or focuses–a sexual health clinic, a community center, meetings around support groups about understanding sexuality, and activism.

We mobilize mostly around issues of discrimination. A lot of our work is through networks or coalitions. Even our health services are part of a national AIDS program. We are part of coalitions that are fighting for legal reform and social justice. This includes a youth advocacy network, in which we work with health care providers.

We do not have much of a lobbying process here. We focus on community mobilization and building the grassroots. In the past two years, we’ve been able to hold rallies, become more public and been able to be part of broad-based campaigns for social justice.

Entire article

March 22, 2011 – Organization for Sexuality Education, Beirut, Lebanon

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A Sex Education Video From OSE Lebanon

We are proud to present OSE, Organization for Sexuality Education, the 1st fully focused NGO in Lebanon and Middle East. OSE launched its first project, a promo awareness campaign video, now played on Lebanese televisions and some cinema screens!

OSE and Oui Pour La Vie teamed up for this effort, that we are hoping to get played in Jordan and other Arab countries as a message to promote safe sex to prevent HIV spread among people, and MSM in the region please help me spread the message and if you know people who should receive this, write me back with their contact details..

March 29, 2011 – Bay Windows

14
Nations pledge movement on LGBT issues at UN Human Rights Council

by Rex Wockner – Bay Windows Contributor
As the United Nations Human Rights Council continued its periodic review sessions on various nations, several developments took place this month. Mongolia’s representatives accepted recommendations that the nation address issues of violence against LGBT people. Panama accepted a recommendation to synchronize its national laws with the norms of "The Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Human Rights Law in Relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity," which were drawn up at a 2006 meeting in Indonesia by human-rights experts from around the world. Honduras agreed to review its national laws to ensure that LGBT human rights are not abridged. And Jamaica agreed to provide enforcement officials with sensitivity training on matters of sexual orientation, gender identity, and HIV.

At the same time, representatives of four nations — Lebanon, Malawi, Maldives, and Mauritania — rejected recommendations that they decriminalize gay sex. In January at the Human Rights Council, São Tomé and Príncipe said it will legalize gay sex by June, and Nauru said it also plans to decriminalize homosexuality. The Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review officially analyzes the human-rights record of each of the 192 U.N. member nations on a rotating basis once every four years, and urges reviewed nations to protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms.

May 27, 2011 – CNN

15
Will gays be ‘sacrificial lambs’ in Arab Spring?

by Catriona Davies, for CNN
(CNN) – The uprisings bringing political change and demonstrations across much of the Arab world have given millions of people hope of greater freedom. But some gay people in the Middle East fear exactly the opposite. Homosexuality is illegal — enforced to varying degrees — in most Arab countries. A 2011 report by the International Lesbian and Gay Association reported that homosexuality is illegal in 76 countries worldwide and punishable by death in five, including Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Iran. Despite the risks, there are those willing to speak out and campaign for gay rights across the Middle East.

Sami Hamwi, a 35-year-old journalist from Damascus, is the Syrian editor for the website Gay Middle East, but few friends or family know his true sexual orientation. Hamwi said: "We have been trying in Gay Middle East to start a group to be able to help LGBT [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender] people in Syria. It is a work in progress." However, he added: "I am very scared now. I can think of a million things they can do to me if I was ever arrested or investigated."

Hamwi wants to see reform in Syria, but doubts that any political change could significantly improve gay rights. "Sheikhs still emphasize that death penalty is the Islamic punishment for gay men," he said. "A more open society regarding sexuality needs years, if not decades, of work after Syrians get the freedom they aspire to have."

Haider Ala Hamoudi, an expert on Middle Eastern and Islamic law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, in the United States, says that while Islamic law is open to different interpretations, it is generally considered to condemn homosexuality. "Not every Muslim would adhere to this view but traditionally Islamic law would regard homosexuality as illegal," he said. "It seems commonly accepted that the foundational sacred sources (the Quran and the Sunnah) ban homosexuality," he added. "I do know there are Muslims who take exception to that, it’s not black and white, but the dominant standing pretty clearly condemns homosexuality."

Some have a more positive view of the situation in Syria. A Syrian woman who writes a blog called "A Gay Girl in Damascus" has gained international attention for her account of her father protecting her when security forces arrived at night to arrest her for "conspiring against the state." The blog’s author, Amina Abdallah, is a 35-year-old English teacher who says she returned to Syria last year after many years in the United States. In an email interview Abdallah said she believed that political change could improve gay rights. She said: "A whole lot of long time changes are coming suddenly bubbling to the surface and views towards women, gay people and minorities are rapidly changing."

Read article

August 26, 2011 – Herald Sun

16
No going back to Lebanon after ex-wife reveals secret to man’s family

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.

November 16, 2011 – The Global Post

17
Beirut, an imperfect haven for LGBT refugees – Though more liberal other parts of the Middle East, persecuted gays find the city isn’t as welcoming as they hoped

by Don Duncan, GlobalPost
Beirut, Lebanon — 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.”

Read complete article here

Gay Lebanon News and Reports 2009-11

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