OUR WORLD: Gay in the Middle East



Michael Luongo, author

 Gay men are everywhere.

For evidence supporting this adage, look no further than the work of journalist Michael Luongo. Michael goes where these men and their stories are, from Texas to Buenos Aires to Baghdad.

I met Michael in 2001 in Dallas. I was attending my first National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association Convention, and feeling a little lost. Michael must've noticed I was a newbie because he came over and was so kind and helpful to me during that time. When the convention ended he told me was going to stay behind and explore other parts of Texas.

He still has that adventurous spirit. After he agreed to be interviewed on THE WILL DEAN SHOW about his most recent work, I sent him the questions by e-mail, which he planned to answer while en route to Buenos Aires, Argentina. He's moved there for a few months to update Frommer’s Buenos Aires guidebook.

With many years of travel writing experience under his belt, Michael's reporting goes beyond things you should see and do. In recent years he's traveled throughout the Middle East to show his readers what it's really like to be gay in that part of our world.

WDS: You have visited the Middle East many times and reported on the plight of gay men there. What initially brought it to your attention?

ML: There are a variety of things. One is simply the fact that with a few wars in the region, the United States is intimately involved with the place. My first time in the region was in 1996 -- Israel, Palestine and Egypt -- traveling with two women friends. And again in 1998, in Turkey. It was on these trips that I first became aware of what we might call “bisexuality” but I would describe it more as a fluidity of sexuality in the region, where men are the most visible presence. The women I traveled with on the first trip were very pretty, and would always be flirted with, but then the same men who flirted with them would seem to be flirting with me, and we laughed about this a lot. But I think we also can misinterpret this male intimacy when looking at it with Western eyes.

It was after the wars though that I began traveling more in the region, feeling we are intimately connected to the area. I also always felt touristically, the purpose of traveling is learning about places and explaining them to others who have never been there. Having traveled to a lot of places, I also knew seeing some of the coverage of things – including things that were horrific, was tinted with a few things – either homophobia, Islamaphobia, or a sense that things along a Western model were best. I didn’t see subtleties within coverage at times. Also, particularly for gay media, most of the coverage was secondhand, not done by people who traveled into the region. 

What's it like to be a gay man in the Middle East in the 21st century?

This is a broad question and it varies from region to region, and city by city, as it would in any part of the world, and even across the United States. You have places like Beirut in a country like Lebanon, where technically it is illegal to be gay, but they have this fantastic infrastructure, rivaling cities in the West. And then you have a place like Baghdad where there were killings, horrific killings, and where militias, sometimes with tacit government approval, were going after gays, even when there are still cafes for gay men operating. 

In Jordan, you have a few cafes; Egypt, in spite of the Queen Nile boat incident, you still have cafes, but then still government censorship and government entrapment. So it’s a mixed bag. You also have places like Israel, definitely a part of the Middle East, where things, at least in Tel Aviv, are more as you would see them in the West, but then in Jerusalem, you still have lots of problems and the danger of religious Orthodoxy. So it is a mixed bag, everywhere you go.

What's the biggest challenge they face?

I think in most countries, there is a political challenge along with a religious one. In a place like Lebanon, where you have 18 officially recognized religions who have to have a form of consensus on the laws, you see the challenge in both terms. At the same time, in some regions, gay rights issues are mixed with issues of Western and American imperialism, seen along with the wars as more meddling in the region. This is sometimes the case with women’s rights also, so it is a broad issue. 

Often what is interesting, is to be able to have social spaces, such as in Syria or Jordan, as long as it does not challenge the political authority, so it can be a balance, and oppression comes when the social is too visible. This was part of the explanation with what happened in Egypt with the Cairo 52, the arrest and torture of the men who were on the Queen Nile boat.

Why should LGBT people in the U.S. care about this issue?

Well these are human rights issues, but also, we are intimately involved with the region, whether we want to be or not. You might want to only watch Lindsay Lohan’s latest rehab adventure, but at the same time, there is real news. I think what is also interesting, and I have heard this a lot from people in the Middle East, and remember, this was one of our promises about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, that we are doing it to help women, when we clearly were not. 

Attention can be focused on the region, like with the hangings of the young men in Iran, which may or may not have been because they were gay, but this should not be used as an excuse to invade Iran, that we want to help gay people. This is a fear I have heard expressed by some gay rights organizations in the Middle East. 

But at the heart of being concerned is the human rights issue, and in addition, how we are involved in the region, and in a case like Iraq, it was the invasion which unleashed the violence against gay men, along with so many other groups. It is something we need to acknowledge as a country, and as a community.

What's the most important thing we can do to help make a positive difference in the lives of gay men in those parts of the Middle East, Africa and other places where oppression is severe and oftentimes deadly?

These efforts take a lot of time and money and if we are talking refugees, eventually such people need a place to live and a network of support. The other thing I think which is important for an American audience is that while we have a certain model of doing things here, in terms of gay rights and activism, such methods don’t always work in every place. It’s a good idea to work with local groups, which understand and are part of the society, rather than to impose how we think gay rights activism should be done.

Despite the oppression and fear that many live with daily, have you seen evidence of the resilient human spirit and strength that gay men are known for?

I think people always find a way. What impressed me tremendously in Baghdad was this sense of two cities, where there were killings, but at the same time, socializing still continued in other areas. This is an extreme case, but even places like Cairo, where you had the Nile Queen boat incident, places to gather still continue.  I think it is also important to note how much people remain in contact via the Internet now, which can circumvent official repression, though even at the same time it might be tracked.

What are you working on now and when can we see it?

I am hoping to write a book on gay Iraq, but we have to see whether that happens or not. I am also talking with my publisher about a Volume II of Gay Travels in the Muslims World. There are also some novels in my head that want to come out, but I have to find the time to write them!


RECOMMENDED READING

To gain a more in-depth understanding of what gay people are living with in the Middle East, Michael shares these publication titles and links:

* Gay City News Return to Baghdad: (Part 1 of 4)http://www.gaycitynews.com/articles/2010/09/15/gay_city_news/features/doc4c7e9f5e6ba73730147188.txt

* Gay Travels in the Muslim World, edited by Michael Luongo
http://www.gaytravelsinthemuslimworld.com/

* Unspeakable Love, by Brian Whitaker and his website
http://www.al-bab.com/unspeakablelove/

HELEM
http://www.helem.net/

Al-Fatiha
http://www.al-fatiha.org/

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Name:  Michael Luongo

Age: 42

Relationship status:single

City of residence: New York