Mideast Piece

Thursday’s Jerusalem Parade for Pride and Tolerance was small and mild by any standards; however, for this veteran of Pride events in New York, Montreal and elsewhere, Thursday was something far more meaningful and important than these show-stoppers.

Jerusalem is supposed to stand for the best values of the world’s oldest religions. GLBT individuals demanding rights and visibility one afternoon a year might offend the “religious” sensibilities of many people living here, but that is not the point. Women demanding the vote offended sensibilities at one point, and so did blacks living outside the system of slavery.

Jerusalem’s GLBT community must keep marching until there is no need to march anymore. It must work harder to reframe this event as an equality rally, because there are powerful (read: ultra-Orthodox) forces attempting to portray it as some kind of recruiting event or sex parade.

It took the ancient Hebrews 40 years of wandering and pain in the desert to go from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. Considering the first shots in the modern struggle for GLBT rights were fired just in the past few decades, we can expect a similar journey. It’s necessary and dangerous, but - for many of us - sitting on the sidelines is out of the question.

Here are some of my photos from Thursday’s event; again, they’re a lot less racy than the Tel Aviv photos earlier in June, but - at least to me - a lot more special.

Below is Adam Russo, who was stabbed by a knife-wielding “yeshiva” student during Jerusalem’s Pride event two years ago.

The Middle East have been sexy longer than…
Well, this picture of fishermen at Eilat dates from 1951.

Thanks to Simon in Bahrain for the tip!

FRIDAY, JUNE 8 FROM 12:00. (The march is usually around 1ish. But come and hang out until time to walk!) Meet at Gan HaIr and march down Arlozorov Street to a party at Gordon Beach.

See you there!

The other day I was hanging out at the beach and watching hot guys do their thing. Some were sunbathing; others playing volleyball. There were lots of folks out windsurfing too. This reminded me of Gal Fridman, Israel’s only gold medal winner. Gal (His name means “wave” in Hebrew, btw.), won a gold metal at the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics for windsurfing. I think he’s hot stuff!

CNN reports that police have arrested a wife and her husband, who was born a woman and underwent sex reassignment surgery 16 years ago, and accused them of lying about the husband’s gender to a court in eastern Pakistan.

According to the report:

The case pits the bride’s father, who wants to annul his daughter’s wedding on the grounds that it is against Islam for two women to marry, against the couple, who said they married to protect the bride from being sold into marriage to pay off her uncle’s gambling debts.

The husband, Shumail Raj, 31, first brought the case to court, appealing for protection from harassment by their relatives. But earlier this month the Lahore High Court ordered the arrest of Raj and his wife, Shahzina Tariq, 26, for lying to the court.

Raj told the court he is male, but a court-appointed panel ruled that Raj is a woman, whose breasts and uterus were removed in sex-change surgery.

This report is in contrast to what Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz, had to say recently at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East 2007. There Aziz said, “Very often we have seen the high costs of exclusion.” Of course he was talking about something else but I really don’t care. At the forum Pakistan was promoted as a progressive place to do business - apparently part of that business involves selling women to pay off debts.

Getting tested for STD’s even in a “Western” country like Israel might not be as easy as you think. Two weeks ago I attempted to to take a full battery of these tests, and proceeded to ask two doctors and one local GLBT support agency for information on where to go in Jerusalem.

To my surprise, all three parties consulted knew only about HIV-testing. “Regular” (family) doctors apparently do not test for STD’s, as had been my experience in the states. Finally, after more than an hour on the Internet and some emails to friends, I discovered a government-run STD testing site in the heart of Tel Aviv, an hour away.

Jerusalem, it seems, is too holy to acknowledge that STD’s are an everyday part of life in every city in the world. It’s Israel’s capital and largest city, and as far as I know there is no place to get tested for STD’s. Fortunately, the situation might change in the near future, as the Jerusalem Open House is working toward opening a GLBT community health center.

As we all know, STD’s affect people of all orientations and backgrounds - will “straight” people be able to use these services as well? Right now, they too must travel to Tel Aviv (twice) to get tested for STD’s. (Apparently, the Jerusalem HIV-testing site is marketed only to gays; two “straight” female friends of mine in Jerusalem were told by their doctors to go to Tel Aviv for HIV-tests).

“Don’t ask, don’t tell” is alive and well in the Holy City, where taking responsibility for one’s health is not nearly as easy as finding a place to pray.

According to this article for CNN by Aneesh Raman, Dr. Heba Kotb is breaking barriers and talking about sex openly on a talk show broadcast across the Middle East. According to Kotb,

We talk about masturbation … sex over the Internet. We talk about sex and Ramadan. We talk about the wedding night.

It took her three years of hard work to get her show on the air. She limits herself though. She only talks about sex allowed in the Quran - sex between husband and wife. The promo for the show starts with Kotb saying, “Sex. Don’t be afraid. Join me to talk about sex without shame.”

Her main advice is something I can get, um, behind: Have more sex.

The other day I was flipping through Time Out Tel Aviv and ran across this CUTE guy in an ad for “Healing treatments, Massage, Relaxation and Spirituality” The ad lists such treatments as: deep tissue massage, warm stones, foot massage, vacuum cups, acupuncture, shiatsu, reiki, tantra, and nutritional advice.

Then ze boy lists his website. I looked it up of course. That’s where these loverly pics came from. Go check it out. He’s got this interesting star zippy thing going on on the site that’s kind of weird but he’s so cute you’ll forgive him. Anyhoo, Moshe (the guy’s name) writes,

I am physiotherapist and tantra practitioner.I invite you to the best experience you’ve ever tried, the experience of TANTRA. Tantra is a spiritual flow from the ancient India. With Tantra you could take care your body through the sexual energy and to experience a great orgasm through it. The main prespective of this session based on the sexual energy, what will bring you to an ecstasy. the being of it is spiritual and physical bodywork that will reflect your body energy flow.

Anyway, it’s been all I could do NOT to call this guy. I mean, I don’t need to pay for sex. But I have to tell you that the idea of an afternoon of a therapeutic tantric “rub down” with this guy makes me want to pullout my, um, wallet.

According to this report, even with all the craziness that goes on in the Middle East it seems that people here are able to stay happy because of - HUMMUS! That’s right, smashed chickpeas make you happy.

Apparently, this food contains an amino acid called tryptophan that, when consumed in large quantities, turns into serotonin, which makes one feel happier. This was discovered in a study by nutrition expert Dr. Zohar Kerem and others. The finding was reported early this year on the nrg.co.il Web site.

All I know is that if eating your share of hummus makes you look like this Middle Eastern hottie, then I am all for it and it’s Prozac effect is just a bonus!