GiB#2 | Eurotrip Goodie Bag

My friends are finally back from their month-long Eurotrip… True they left out poor GiB#2 behind, however their “Please Welcome Us Back” goodie bag was full of wonders:

- a sexy military-green fishnet thong that looks like it was stolen off a German gay porn movie set – Guys are you serious I should try it on?? Please tell me it's meant as a joke...

- an adorable metal figurine of a Tom of Finland-type hunk with a huge boner, likely hand-painted by some retired gay dude sitting in the boudoir of his sex den, somewhere in this all-gay mediterranean beatchtown.

- last but not least, a bottle of top-notch Jungle Juice LEATHER CLEANER supposedly headache-free and with the mention “Do Not Inhale”. Fine I admit this one is not really a gift since I actually asked for it… you know there’s this stain on my leather jacket…

… Gosh can a goodie bag get any gayer than this?!

It makes me realize yet again how deprived we GiBs are over here …Will they ever open a real sex shop in Lebanon?

(Photo taken on a Beirut balcony)

GiB#2 | Play That Glowstick

Finally. At last. They invented it. From now on, I can follow the light and never, ever lose it in the dark again.

(Photo taken on the Jounieh hignway)

History in the Making | by Art Hake

Once upon a time, on a beautiful shore of the Mediterranean, a group of men and women installed their little brick houses and called it home. They soon got bored thus thought of a way to better communicate. They invented the alphabet and developed the first sea port. Since they didn’t always agree on what to say and ended up fighting a bit, some went off to faraway places, creating little colonies around the Mother sea: Nice, Ibiza, Larnaca, Malta, Carthage, Palermo, etc. fetching gold, turquoise and slaves in exchange of cedar wood and Tyrian purple while identifying good vacation spots for future generations. Those who stayed opened fish restaurants and got screwed by most tourists and visiting neighbors.

The women were so gorgeous; they drew attention from kings and princes around, dragging the cities into endless wars.

Their relatives across the globe kept on sending aid and visiting from time to time, but like you’d get overwhelmed by a creepy old aunt in your family that wouldn’t die, visit intervals got longer and longer, until centuries passed by. Guilt feeling left few open channels but nonetheless, Phoenicians of Lebanon had to count on nobody but themselves.

Nowadays, you’d find Phoenicians somewhat happier with their lives, despite the fact that not much has changed. Their commerce is growing, they have no more wood to sell but their mastering of the languages makes them amazing negotiators of whatever-it-is-you-need, women manage to grow even bigger boobs, they still import slaves and continuously get screwed by their neighbors (although to be honest, I think they’re starting to enjoy this).

The fish restaurants are quite good, which tempts tourists and descendants of their diaspora to come back.

But some things did change. Our natural resources are now limited to sun, sea, liquor, parties, sex & drugs. With the extinction of the murex, origin of the purple color, the disappearance of the green forests, the pollution of the blue sea, the melting of the white snows, the place is threatened of grimness. We need to bring back the glee. Happy people from around the world unite, come in and spread the rainbow, which is also a perspective of the peace flag, the only flag we believe in. Berytus is your next destination!

GiB#2 | Trippin’ on Acid

I was delighted a few weeks ago to come across two really cool blogs from fellow GiB bloggers somewhere out there in the blogosphere. I don't know how else I would have found them if it weren't for LGBTMonitor’s real-time monitoring/twitting of everything LGBT pertaining to Lebanon, as well as +961's eclectic Lebanese Blogosphere Weekly Link Roundups.

When I visited them, both blogs had a recent post about our (in)famous yet (un)avoidable, our longstanding survivor Acid Nightclub. When you're talking about gay Lebanon, there is no way around Acid indeed.

I thought I'd repost some excerpts from these posts, to illustrate how widely opinions about this place vary in the GiB community. In fact, Acid is at the same time the must-go-to weekend party spot for some, a big no-no for others, with everyone in between including the regulars, the occasionals, and the after-party Acid-goers. As for gay tourists, the ones I went with once really loved it calling it ‘exotic’ for the GiB belly-dancing and ‘incredible’ for being located in the middle-east.

As a GiB who stands somewhere in the middle of this wide spectrum of opinions, by going there every few months over the last ten years, I have seen the place change so drastically over time, that I have come to think that it's the one place that best embodies recent GiB history, and carries its timeline, more than any other place in Lebanon.

... From back when it opened in the 1990’s as a wanna-be-hip straight club, boasting the biggest bar (and Buddha statue) in the country, to when it started turning GiB competing with nearby Orange Mécanique, when it closed down for some time, then re-opened as super-GiB-friendly, through the then-frequent police raids…

... From back when you would see GiBs by the dozens over-doing the effeminate thing wearing make-up and matching handbags, and from there all the way up to the relative carelessness and ‘normality’ of the crowd today… With its see-and-be-seen and don’t-ask-don’t-tell attitudes, its crowd of guys of all ages coming from every region in Lebanon and the nearby countries, with its commercial electronic music and its traditional Arabic set around 2am... Acid has a little bit of everything for everyone (or not) but it definitely remains a major landmark for gay Lebanon.

Now without further ado…

Gary from The G Life speaking of another remarkable dating disaster (We'll both get there Gary, I promise!)

“ I found myself in front of Acid when we had agreed to go elsewhere. Now for those who haven’t been to Acid before… It’s a nightclub that is still stuck in 1999, including the green laser and bad music that goes well with the trashy wall décor; although I doubt the people who frequent Acid take the time to notice such things.”

...And Boy Breathing Beirut in his amazing piece “A Night in Acid” (Keep it up GuyMeetsWorld, I'm loving it!)

“ My friend’s friend goes there to have sex with seven strangers in the parking lot. He blew every single one of them.

Bitches go there to practice the new dance moves they saw in the latest Lady Gaga video.

Trannies go there to party and feel comfortable in their own skin, shaking their derrières for the world to see.

Zuhair goes there to get some pussy. He thinks at least one of those bisexual women would be interested in boning him.

[…]

But you don’t go to Acid to find love.

You don’t go to Acid to build friendships.

You do go to Acid to have a good time, dance, scream, sing, jump around, act crazy, dirty dance with a few friends (or strangers), drink your ass off, run into a High School classmate who you didn’t know was gay, get a couple of numbers, have a one night stand, and of course, gossip at the ‘ugly’ boy next to you cause you know he’s currently dating your ex.”

(Photo of Acid Nightclub by day)

GiB#2 | Way to Go Argentina!

This is already old news by now but I had to put it down.

It’s a small change in the text of a Constitution to replace the phrase “a man and a woman” with “the two contractors”… but it’s a huge change it brings for the LGBT community, and for society as a whole.

Argentina became on July 16, 2010 the first country across South and Central America to legalize same-sex marriage, following the steps of a few other forward-thinking countries in the world (and a few U.S. states). Two weeks later, the first Argentinean couple (aged 54 and 65) sealed their love in front of the mayor.

This sets a great example for Lebanon. While Argentina is probably not as diverse and complex in terms of religions as Lebanon, it is still very much a religious and conservative country… and yet this didn’t prevent the vote to go against the will of the conservatives (Catholics). It’s the more-tolerant majority that got the last word.

This kind of victory of democracy and tolerance against prejudice and taboo, is one that every society, including the Lebanese, deserves.

But let’s stay realistic here, and admit that we’re ages behind Argentina. We don’t even have the basis for same-sex marriage… So let’s shoot for civil marriage for the time being!

(Incredibly amazing artwork by… me)

GiB#3 | The Genesis of Paranoia

Let me share my new thought which lightbulbed last night in my head.

So, not so long ago, I was questioning myself: when do you draw the line between "instinct" and "paranoia", ok? But then I discovered something interesting - and this is all of course the birth of some series of unfortunate dating events.

Our instincts are never wrong. They seem to be true and strong to us once they agree with our desires. The moment our instincts warn us from our desires, we quickly bury them six-feet under.

In a short period of time, those seeds, buried in the soil of disbelief, will quiver for life, just as our hearts quiver with fear, and voilà: paranoia is born and it sprouts out to be fed by the sun of disillusion.

If your instincts and desires are intersecting, then that's la vie en rose bilmshabra7. If you feel one hint of parallelism, then be on guard and sing to the Elephants avec Rachel Yamagata.

(Picture off the Web)

GiB#2 | Be a PLAYBOY and Get Some PUSSY

B-rated local Red Bull energy drinks… just what the Lebanese dude needs to get through a hectic summer.