A small warning to anyone who gets caught up in Beirut’s tourism campaign to oust Tel Aviv as the Middle East’s gay capital: you might be able to book a gay-oriented tour, but don’t act all gay on it. At least not without looking both ways first. We continue reading about how Beirut is quickly becoming “the Provincetown” of the region, but keep in mind homosexuality is still a crime in all of Lebanon’s 4,500 square miles thanks to the very much alive Article 534, which calls same-sex relations a crime against nature. And while the locals might feel increasingly liberated about PDA in public, there is no hell quite like having your passport confiscated by law enforcement and figuring out the judicial system of a foreign country. [photo: NYT]
ron
Any liberal dumb enough to vacation in a muslim country deserves what happens to them. Muslims are savages. Why would you give your money to those ugly stinking dogs, when they just want to kill you?
Raja
Ron, you’re an idiot.
Beirut is a fantastic city and has become a destination for gay people over the last few years because, well, it is fabulous.
Article 534 hasn’t been applied for over 10 years, and even if it was, you would need to be caught in the act to be arrested.
I’ve lived in Beirut as an openly gay man for the past 6 years, and I have never had any problems.
Raja
@ron: I am always fascinated to see bigoted gay people. It baffles me.
Not only is your comment ignorant, it is offensive and completely uninformed.
Get a life and learn that hate leads you nowhere.
James Davis
HELL NO! Any gay person who spends a single $ in this part of the world needs their head examined.
Mark
@ron: Wow, and just how many muslims do you know Ron? Your bigotry and racist attitudes must serve you well wherever it is you live. I have traveled in Lebanon, Kuwait and UAE and have never had a minute’s issue. I have some very dear and close friends who are muslim and I have their respect and they have mine.
I think you need to get out more and experience different cultures as your post indicates you have led a very sheltered existence or else you’re just a racist homosexual and in that instance I do feel sorry for you.
ChiGuy76
@ron: You should also know that Lebanon is 50% Christian and Article 534 is rarely enforced. There is even open LGBT societies working in Lebanon towards it’s repeal. In addition, most Lebanese look toward Europe for cultural leadership and not Saudia Arabia. Most women, even Muslim women, tend to dress in the latest Western fashion, Western movies are extremely popular, and French is widely spoken. The fact that the Lebanese Tourism Board is actively courting the gay currency shows that tolerance and acceptance is growing in Lebanon. However, that being said, this article is correct that gay travelers should exercise caution when traveling there. In fact travelers to the Middle East of all persuasions should exercise caution concerning PDA’s. Gay or Straight, Muslim or Christian (or Jewish), Middle Eastern society frowns on all public forms of intimacy. What you do behind closed doors though is entirely up to you.
Mike
That law is never enforced. Rhere are a lot of gay people living in Beirut. It’s as liberal as any major US city. I felt more secure there than I did in some parts of the US. Are you forgetting that sodomy was illegal in several states up until 2003? It wasn’t enforced, but it was still a law. Same thing here.
Mohamed
And Israel’s human rights record is any better? BTW queerty, your line “continuing to read” is a bit lame given that the article you’ve referred to is from August 2009.
It wouldn’t have anything to do with Israel’s recent gay travel marketing campaign now would it?
Queerty between this and your wrong photo of the Saudi prince you’re really failing to be a news source, and are no more than a gossip blog.
At the end of the day should you travel to any part of the world you should practice common sense. Have we forgotten than HIV + men traveling to the US until recently have had to not take their meds with them and go without?
hephaestion
How Can Beirut Court Foreign Gay Travelers When Lebanon Law Threatens To Lock Them Up?
The same way Morocco can have laws making homosexuality illegal even though the freakin’ KING is gay.
All the rich Parisian gays adore Morocco, and Moroccans love their progressive King, so clearly they don’t enforce that law much.
Lebanon is NOT friendly to LGBTs
Lebanese Asylum Seeker Wins Round
Court says justice department must consider gay man’s argument of Hezbollah threat
Gay City News, March 10, 2005
By Arthur S. Leonard
A unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, based in San Francisco, ruled on March 7 that a gay man from Lebanon was entitled to be considered for asylum in the United States based on his reasonable fear of persecution if he were to return to his home country. [snip]
Karouni, who filed an application for asylum in March 1998, presented an unusually detailed record supporting his claim that he would be persecuted if he returned to Lebanon, showing that the Tyre region, where his family lived, was under the domination of the Hezbollah, a militant Muslim fundamentalist group that strictly enforces the Sharia, under which homosexual acts are a capital offense. Karouni testified that he had been interrogated about his sexuality in his apartment by two armed militants in the fall of 1984, that gay friends and acquaintances had been persecuted and killed and that his sexual identity was widely known in Lebanon.
(snip)
http://www.glapn.org/sodomylaws/world/lebanon/lbnews009.htm
Lebanon is NOT friendly to LGBTs
For the actual court case, see:
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-9th-circuit/1081225.html
c
I’m an out gay college student going to beirut this summer and I can’t wait!
ya libnan!
Jimmy
Queerty you obviously fail bashing Lebanon and its people , and it’s clear that this so called reporter who wrote the article has never ever been to lebanon to judge the situation by himself. He’s just another zionist who has been reading too much israeltoday that hatred and jealousy from the beautiful Lebanon incensed him !!! Dear reader : Never believe what zionists say , always judge by yourself.
Ur
Is Lebanon perfect? No, it isn’t. As someone that also lives in Beirut, I feel more comfortable as an out gay male than I did in many parts of the US.
Americans always seem to bitch about the Middle East, while trying to impose their own culture on it and whatnot. Look at the violence coming from America and take care of it there before attacking the rest of the world for not being in your image.
Lebanon’s main issue with LGBTIQ rights stems more from class divisions than anything else, where gay establishments are for the wealthy and sleazy sex tourists from the West, while poorer members of the community have fewer options.