Comments on: For the First Time, A Gay Rights Protest in the Arab World

By: lyes

lyes — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 09:12:20 +0000

i wish this event happenes in algeria, i know there is a lot of gays in algria , specially in chritian town like tizi ouzou, but they don t have the courage to step up and ask for their right!. i am one of them ; chritian , so i hope the best to gays all over the world.

By: Bill Perdue

Bill Perdue — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 05:04:43 +0000

@kevin (not that one): I think the only solution is political and involves demanding the immediate and total withdrawal of all US and allied troops from the region. Secondly the US should end all support for zionist apartheid and ethnic cleansing. And third we should support the creation of a federal, secular, socialist regional state including that includes all of Palestine.

I think GLBT folks will find it hard to make progress while the region is up in arms over being attacked by US oil pirates and at the same time dominated by the three worst enemies we have, christers, islamists and judaic fundamentalists. I don’t agree that one set of cults is better or worse than the other, the only difference is in their ability to harm us, not their intent.

Given all that that I hope these people keep trying. It wasn’t easy when Barbara Gittings and Frank Kameny helped organize picket lines the White House in the 1950’s. More than once there were more FBI agents standing around with cameras than actual demonstrators.

In the meantime our brothers and sisters are still be murdered by US armed sunni and shia thugs and need our help to provide safe houses: http://iraqilgbtuk.blogspot.com/

By: getreal

getreal — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 03:56:41 +0000

@JJJJ: Amen!

By: Sebbe

Sebbe — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 02:11:39 +0000

Wasn’t Lebanon the only other country besides Israel to play Brokeback mountain in the middle east. I wonder if MILK is going to play there as well.

By: rogue dandelion

rogue dandelion — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 01:32:11 +0000

the only protests i have been to are in SF and Berkeley, I can’t imagine the bravery required for these men and women.

By: JJJJ

JJJJ — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 01:25:28 +0000

Those protestors are very brave. God protect them.

By: Pink

Pink — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 01:20:46 +0000

Queer Jihad!!!!

By: getreal

getreal — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 23:56:54 +0000

@kevin (not that one): I had a lebanese boyfriend once they are sooo hot!

By: kevin (not that one)

kevin (not that one) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 23:11:27 +0000

Seriously, I wonder how many of them are Christian.

Beirut has a sizable Lebanese Christian community that isn’t as foaming at the mouth with hate as the large swaths of the southern part of the city that are controlled by Hezbollah. In fact, I haven’t looked at a map but I’m willing to bet this demonstration happened in the small northern part of the city that is more cosmopolitan.

While Christian fundamentalists in the Western world are the number one offenders of queerbashing, in the Middle East it actually helps to be near a Christian community if you are a woman or gay.

And sadly enough, it is safer to be a queer, Arab second-class citizen in Tel Aviv than it is to live as a queer Palestinian in Ramallah – even with all of the anti-Arab sentiment that permeates Israeli society.

Nevertheless, Arab men are hot – especially Lebanese men.

By: getreal

getreal — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 22:07:10 +0000

I hope they are aware that people all over the world are pulling for them and are so proud of their bravery.

By: sal

sal — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:34:46 +0000

proud yet fearful ,hope they will get the results they,we all, want

By: Scott in NYC,

Scott in NYC, — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:31:07 +0000

I just realized my comment was almost verbatim the same as Dan’s. Well, it’s true! So there!

By: Scott in NYC,

Scott in NYC, — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:30:38 +0000

This is true bravery…GOOD FOR THEM!

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 20:57:00 +0000

That’s some brave protesting. Good for them!

By: Bill Perdue

Bill Perdue — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:35:26 +0000

This is very good news although like ourselves they have centuries of bigotry to overcome.

The presence of large shia and catholic influences is a double whammy that makes life for GLBT folk there even more difficult.

In Lebanon bigotry derives from both christer and islamic sources. In places like Iraq and Egypt it was imported by English colonialists and has a more distinctly European origin.

By: John

John — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:33:34 +0000

I’m so worried for all of them but so excited as well. We in the west have NO idea what it must be like to live with that much oppression. I wish them strength and courage.

By: raphael

raphael — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:30:15 +0000

This is terrific news, and I’d like to hear more about what’s going on across the world.

I have no idea what gay muslims Tallskin is hanging out with, however.

By: Tallskin

Tallskin — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:02:13 +0000

Good for them!

I wish them well.

This is the sort of gay liberation in the muslim world I can identify with rather than that appalling “Jihad for Love” rubbish where muslim gays whine & moan about being oppressed yet choose to wriggle up more snugly into the islamic blanket that causes their oppression in the first place!