Mideast Piece

A recent story in the Middle East Times focuses on Palestinian lesbians and their unique dual-minority status in Israel. “We are Palestinian, we are women, and we are gay,” is the slogan coined by Aswat, the association campaigning for lesbian Arabs to be accepted in Israeli and Palestinian society, and whose name in English means “voices.”

The gay community in Israel - including gay Arabs/Palestinians - has become highly organized in recent years, including the formation of several women’s groups. There have even been efforts to unite GLBT Jews and Arabs under the same banner to work toward tolerance. Palestinian women face quite a few hurdles, including the status of women in their highly traditional society and the “illness” of being gay.

“Under Islamic law, homosexuality is unlawful, a kind of illness that needs to be treated,” said Sheikh Ibrahim Sarsur, an MP in the Israeli parliament and a member of the movement. “Our Arab society cannot tolerate this phenomenon, to allow it to become an overt part of our daily life,” the lawmaker added.

Read the full article here.

“A Jihad for Love” is the world’s first documentary film on the role of homosexuality in Islam. Filmed in a dozen countries and nine languages, the film has started to make the rounds in the US.

Director Parvez Sharma (pictured here) has faced an uphill battle bringing the film to life. “About every two weeks I get an e-mail that berates me, condemns me to hell and, if they are nice, asks me to still seek forgiveness while there is still time,” said the Indian-American director.

Sharma has attempted to portray homosexuality without shame, all the while protecting the safety of his sources by filming them as silhouettes or with their faces covered. In one case, he said the family of an Afghan woman he interviewed “would undoubtedly kill her” if they found out she was a lesbian. Even one of the film’s associate producers, an Egyptian gay man, chose not to be listed in the credits for fear of possible consequences. (When was the last time you heard of someone in Hollywood not wanting credit?!)

Though filled with the trials and tribulation of being gay and Muslim, the film ultimately leaves viewers with a positive message about the potential to reclaim Islam in the name of tolerance and love. “The Islam that this film is seeking to reclaim is rich, it is pulsating, it’s welcoming, condemning sometimes, it’s loving, it’s erotic, it’s sensual, it’s poetic and it’s musical,” said Sharma.

Amen.

The recent police approval of Jerusalem Pride for June 21 has again incited ultra-Orthodox protesters to launch an orgy of hate that by all accounts will last until (a) the event is cancelled or (b) the event actually takes place.

“Does everyone with an evil proclivity need to display it?” Rabbi Oded Shmueli asked this morning on Army Radio.

“They should at least have some shame. Why display it? People who want to commit murder or rob a bank are afraid of the shame. So what should we tell them to do - to go rob a bank; commit rape; murder; everything?”

The Holy City’s hateful holy men are planning a concerted campaign to disrupt “secular” life throughout Jerusalem, and even other Israeli cities. Keep in mind that very few of these men hold jobs because their job is “to study Torah,” which, if I’m not mistaken, has something to say about brotherly love and tolerance, or no?

Read more here.

(The photo shows men placing posters to recruit followers against the GLBT community’s June 21 human rights demonstration).

I am not geographically challenged. I know that Russia is not in the Middle East. However, this really got to me. According to CNN a violent scuffle broke out in Moscow on Sunday as gay rights activists tried to protest in support of a pride parade in the Russian capital. Nationalists shouting “death to homosexuals” punched and kicked the demonstrators.

The story continues

Riot police detained gay rights activists as they tried to present a petition asking Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who has called gay marches satanic acts, to lift a ban on the parade.

Nationalists and extreme Russian Orthodox believers held icons and denounced homosexuality as “evil” while a group of thick-set young men turned up with surgeon’s masks, which they said would protect them from the “gay disease.”
“We are defending our rights,” said a young gay man named Alexey, with blood pouring out of his nose after he was beaten up by a man screaming “homosexuals are perverts” opposite the mayor’s office. His attacker was detained.

“This is terrible but I am not scared. This is a pretty scary place, a pretty scary country if you are gay. But we won’t give up until they allow us our rights,” he said.

Hundreds of riot police lined Tverskaya street in central Moscow and plain-clothes police mingled with a large number of foreign and Russian journalists.

Parade organizer Nikolai Alexeyev told Reuters by telephone from a police station that about 20 people had been detained, a figure confirmed by police.

“We are sitting in the police station right now. We were detained outside the mayor’s office when we tried to present the petition,” said Alexeyev.
Gay tolerance

Russia decriminalized homosexuality in 1993 but tolerance is not widespread.

“We believe these perverts should not be allowed to march on the streets of Moscow, the third Rome, a holy city for all Russians,” said Igor Miroshnichenko, who said he was an Orthodox believer who had come to support the riot police.

“It (homosexuality) is satanic,” he told Reuters. One man holding a crucifix threatened to beat-up any gay person he saw.

Richard Fairbrass, a gay singer with the British pop group Right Said Fred, was punched in the face and kicked by anti-gay activists while speaking to Reuters in an interview.

“We understand this is a gay event and so we came down here today,” Fairbrass told Reuters before being hit. Blood dripped from his face after the attack.

Volker Beck, a German green party politician and gay rights campaigner, was hit in the face with eggs before being detained by riot police. “We didn’t do anything,” he told Reuters as he was led away.

Germany’s Green Party Chairwoman Claudia Roth called on German Chancellor Angela Merkel to raise the issue of rights with President Vladimir Putin at next month’s G8 summit.

“It has been shown once again today that human rights are systematically abused in Putin’s Russia,” she said in a statement. Beck was later released.

“It is very conspicuous when people are arrested in front of the mayor’s office when they were doing nothing other than trying to present a peaceful petition,” said Scott Long, a rights activist with Human Rights Watch who observed the events.

“There was no real attempt to separate the two sides and that led to people being beaten up,” he said. “I would call on the Russian authorities to protect freedom of assembly, protect freedom of expression and protect demonstrators.”

Hey you in the comfy desk chair in the US. Get off your ASS and GO TO A PRIDE EVENT THIS SUMMER! CELEBRATE YOUR FREEDOM! God! DO SOMETHING!

Recently a media outlet in the Middle East had their readers vote for the best looking Middle Eastern men of the past. I’ll do a few posts and share the results with you.

According to the article, Mike Brant was born Moshe Brand and was the son of Holocaust survivors.

Mike was one of the chosen few who made it big in the international music scene. For the Israel of the mid-’70s, his look was considered impressive and glamorous. Brant introduced sex appeal to the puritan atmosphere of the kibbutz.

People still visit his grave despite the more than 30 years that have passed since he jumped to his death from the balcony of his Paris apartment in 1975.

And now for your French lesson of the day (Love the shirt!!!!):

According to reports, the Israeli Ml clothing chain will soon open a store in Dubai. This makes it the first Israeli fashion brand to have an outlet in the Arab emirate.

The article continues:

ml signed a distribution agreement with a French company which specializes in marketing large-size fashion lines. The French company signed a deal with the Albulug Company owned by one of Dubai’s wealthiest families to open an ml chain in Dubai. In the fist stage of the deal, ml will open four stores with an average area of 100 square meters in prestigious shopping centers and leading malls.

Ml will invest some $1.5 million in its Dubai stores.

Europe is still recovering from the first-ever legal Pride event in Warsaw last week. Past Pride events in Warsaw have been under the radar and met with fierce opposition.

According to sources, the ground shook and thunder roared as 5,000 gay people and their supporters wound their way through central Warsaw under a heavy police presence. Many participants had the astounding nerve to hold “Stop Homophobia” signs. Like Pride events held in Jerusalem and other conservative cities, this was nothing of the “flesh display” a la New York and San Francisco Prides, but a real actual human rights demonstration in the heart of the country that just six decades ago housed (and fed) a dozen or so Nazi death camps.

As such, it was even more offensive to the ultra-nationalist Catholic Youth Movement and the militant far-right All-Polish Youth (above), both of which staged counter demonstrations nearby. Protestors carried signs reading “Homo go home.”

Talk show host/goddess, Oprah Winfrey, pledged to visit to visit the Middle East during a recent speech. She was being honored by the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity for her contribution to promoting humanitarian issues. Read more about Oprah’s trip to the ME here.

Oprah - send us an email! We’d love to meet up with you, girl, while you’re here!!! Oh - and BRING NATE!

Two young men meet by accident on a hot evening in Israel. One is Palestinian, ready to die for his beliefs in an attack planned for the next morning. The other is Israeli, lost in life after losing his whole family to terrorism and war.

Since you’re reading this plot description on Mideast Piece, you can assume these men are gay, and that they will either fall in love or fight a pitched battle for the duration of their lives. This is the story behind “Le Centiema Nom,” a film starring French-Arab actor Salim Kechiouche as the Palestinian ready to die for his beliefs.

Word on the street is that Salim is the hottest gay Arab actor around. Of course his gay-themed movies are French, because it’s not like the Arab world is hot on producing gay-themed films; however, Salim’s many films have made their way to the Middle East and - as Martha would say - it’s a good thing.

Here he is:

According to Ynet News, police have given the Jerusalem Open House (the local LGBTQ community center) approval to hold this year’s pride parade!

The article continues:

The Jerusalem Open House received a letter from Israeli police Thursday, giving the community center preliminary permission to hold the annual gay pride parade in Jerusalem, this June.

The parade’s organizers submitted their request for the permits needed to hold the parade last March, but the controversial parade was fiercely apposed by the city’s Orthodox residents.

“Let there be no doubt – the police department is fully obligated by High Court ruling 7348/06″, said Jerusalem District Police Commander, Major-General Ilan Franco in the letter sent to the Open House.

The High Court ruling specified the district police must provide the permits and security necessary for the gay pride parade.

June 8 is Pride in Tel Aviv - and I’ll post the date soon for Pride in Jerusalem! All of you guys who are apathetic about pride in your community - get out and march this year or turn up to support marchers! There are MANY places around the globe where people don’t have the luxury of sitting at home while other people protect their human and civil rights.

BTW, there are some really nasty “talk backs” at the bottom of the article. It might be cool if you could put a word of support there too.