I can tell my parents that I am going to a male friend’s house and plan to spend the night there. I am never questioned on that. However, if I were to say I was going to a female friend’s house, there would be dozens of questions about that.
—Burhan, a gay Pakistani man, on how the country’s gays manage to socialize and date while maintaining social norms [Daily Times]
Eric
Well, that’s something, I guess.
Jeremy
There is no upside! You go over his house too many times, while avoiding the question of marriage to your parents, you think they don’t suspect anything???
Scott in NYC
No mention of what might happen to Burhan if his parents did indeed start to wonder or obtained any evidence that his sleepovers were not of the “(social) norm.” Part 249 in Queerty’s neverending campaign to prove that leadership ruled by radical Muslim theology (like the PA) are somehow amenable to gays or evolving in their treatment of homosexuals. When will Queerty drop this dangerous fiction?
B
It’s not nearly as bad as some other Islamic countries (Pakistan is far more secular, particularly in the urban areas). They certainly have their share of religious folks and, as a result, laws such as ones making it illegal to disparage a religion. I visited it at one point, and some Pakistanis seemed to distinguish “religious people” from the rest of the population for whatever that is worth.
Right now you might have real problems in some tribal areas, particularly the ones with a Taliban insurgency fueled by the problems in Afghanistan. Some of those areas are only loosely controlled by the national government, BTW, even without the Taliban problem.
EdWoody
That’s exactly how my husband got to have sex with his first boyfriend as a teenager under his mother’s roof.