Mideast Piece

Today Mideast Piece brings you to Turkey for a popular local sport: oil wrestling. Every year since 1640 Turkey’s best wrestlers – men and boys – have gathered for the national championships on a grassy field near the capitol of the old Ottoman Empire (Edirne). The tournament is called “Kirkpinar,” or “Forty Springs,” in honor of a 17th Century wrestling legend.

The wrestlers wear tight short leather trousers called “Kispet” made of water buffalo leather and - fortunately for us horn-dogs - cover themselves with olive oil. Matches take place throughout the country, especially during the summer.

Oil wrestling matches can draw thousands of Turks, who come for the match and to enjoy lamb roast, belly dancing and traditional Turkish music. Only if there is no winner after a half-hour is the match decided with a “sudden death” overtime. There are few forbidden holds, and grabbing of trunks is not off limits. (What about grabbing of asses and crotches?)

Next time you’re in Turkey, skip the mosques and head to the oil wrestling!

The Israman Long Distance races were held last week in Eilat, Israel. While this event wasn’t particularly “gay”, I bet the standard 10% was there to represent. Anyway, anytime there are hot guys getting wet and taking their clothes off in the Middle East, you can count us to cover it! Read more about it for yourself. Here are some of my favorite quotes from the article:

I felt every cell in my body screaming. Then, a guy with a tattoo on his leg coasted past me. I had yet to absorb what happened when another guy passed me, as if he were just warming up.

Then, they ran, barefoot and wet, to the changing station, where they stripped off bathing suits…

Here are some more images from the event for your enjoyment!


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And my favorite:

There’s something about a stud with a tattoo, especially when that tattoo requires the stud in question to reveal lots of skin so others may admire the artwork. Check out these local dreamboats and their sexy ink art…

Since art began, the gay artist has been at the forefront of creating divine works. As anyone who has ever picked up a brush knows, art can help one channel emotions, make political statements or get touch with the sublime. And who needs to do more of this stuff than homos?

Museums seem to be taking a hit these days, and that’s a shame. In our age of mass-production and instant gratification, art has the potential to slow us down, refocus us and open new (non-cyber space) windows onto the world.

Take a look at these quotes from contemporary gay painters and photographers about their work, quotes quite relevant to the mission of this blog:

“Rain Dance conveys the shamanistic aspect of homosexuals throughout recorded history to spiritually regenerate their cultures. The Dance is to bring the blessings of rain ‘from heaven to the place beneath.’ The rain is the healing quality that their experience brings to their communities at large. Without this quality, the world would be a parched desert without hope.”

- H. Michael Wieben

“The great mountain top where each one can have our pride and ability to fly, the wings over the mountain or the wish and desire for freedom… and the body of myself and I, the ego with me, or someone special who can share and give us the necessary strength to live and fly cool… over obstacles.”

- Gonçalo Bènard

Youth are our tomorrow; the right of who they want to be is their choice; accepting them will only make them stronger leaders of tomorrow. Pride is the day celebrating the coming out of the essence of youth, beauty, and innocence.”

- CM Soto

Have you ever noticed that those bitchy queens at the bar who are always ready to cut someone down are always single? Most people (homos included) like other people who are open, happy, and nice. If you’re an asshole and are wondering why you’re alone - well, assholes stink. Adjust your attitude.

I just finished reading a book that readers of Mideast Piece will enjoy. Diary of a Drag Queen by Daniel Harris is about the gay author’s quest to cope with mid-life and a break-up by transforming himself into that most fearsome of creatures - the fishnet stocking-clad woman.

In diary “his/her” chapter format, Daniel, aka “Denial,” takes us through the underworld of being a New York City drag queen in the age of the Internet. Thanks to cyberspace, “straight” men are able to fulfill once off-limits fantasties after arranging an encounter with Denial. The book is filled with social and psychological commentary, much of it based on Denial’s romps with men of different ethnic and racial backgrounds (like this blog!).

“In the bedroom of the drag queen, the heterosexual and the homosexual, like the lion and the lamb, lie down on the same sheets,” writes Harris.

“Diary” is a sequin-studded page-turner if I ever saw one. The author is a true poet, and I devoured each page like the first plate at a Chinese buffet. Check out this opening sentence for a flavor of Daniel’s style:

“I remember the first time I did drag-not the sort of drag that I am doing now, but screeching, camp drag, fright drag, drag that expresses not the love of femininity, but the gay man’s triumph over effeminate stereotypes, which he defies by caricaturing them, performing a hygienic subcultural ritual in which he distances himself from the mannerisms of the limp-wristed fag.”

Amen to drag.

Media reports from Iraq show that gays have become a major target of Islamist death squads running rampant in the country. Homosexuality has been labeled a “crime against Islam,” and gays are being targeted for physical violence and murder.

In 2005, Iraq’s leading Muslim cleric, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called for the execution of gay Iraqis. The followers of rebel leader Muqtada al-Sadr have also been active in attacks on gays. In addition to gays, women and various minority groups have come under attack, once again proving that hate does not recognize borders.

Gay rights activist Peter Tatchell warns that recent killings of gays reflect on Iraqi society at large and the fate of a country overflowing with Islamic extremism:

“The execution of lesbian and gay Iraqis by Islamist death squads and militia is symptomatic of the fate that will befall all Iraqis if the fundamentalists continue to gain influence. The summary killing of queers is the canary in the mine – a warning of the barbarism to come.”

To learn more about the plight of GLBT individuals around the world, visit Human Rights Watch

Check the March 2007 issue of Details magazine to read a gay Israeli army major’s quote of the day: “Even at straight clubs, the bathroom floors are covered with condoms at 2am.”

Details has a spread on the party scene in Tel Aviv, a city known to Israelis as “the Bubble” for its never-ended nightlife, free living, and general isolation from grim realities just a few miles away. This seaside “first modern Hebrew city” is definitely the place to go for gays, including hundreds of Palestinians who have fled to Tel Aviv after “coming out” in their ultra-traditional society.

“The drugs, the drinking and all that screwing around would kill normal people,” one woman says in the article. Other Tel Aviv natives disagree, saying “the Bubble” allows them to live like other “normal” people around the world do.

BOO normal!
Hat tip to Stephanie!

Jerusalem recently recorded its first same-sex marriage, an event we hope will one day be commonplace.

Avi and Binyamin Rose, from Canada and Britain respectively, were married in Canada last year before returning to Israel. The Roses’ listing in the Israeli Population Registry follows a landmark High Court decision last year wherein the state was ordered to recognize same-sex marriages conducted abroad (similar to how it recognizes heterosexually married Israelis married outside of Israel).

Both men maintain a high level of Jewish observance and have worked in Jewish education. Though rattled by recent anti-gay incitement in Jerusalem, Avi and Binyamin love the Holy City and are proud to have made their first home there.

“We didn’t do this as a publicity stunt,” explained Avi, noting that he and his partner are inherently private people. “We don’t see ourselves as anything unusual. We’re two people who met, fell in love, got engaged and then married.”