2011/04/28

Lebanon Speaks Up Loud Against Homophobia

Save the Date.
May 17: The International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO)



Lebanon might not have a flashy gay parade with rainbow flags waving above our heads just yet. But many of us Lebanese, gay, straight or anywhere in between, are already actively engaged in a collective effort trying to raise awareness and fight homophobia.
 
More often than not, homophobia is just another by-product of ignorance. People remaining stuck with their pre-conceived ideas, their limited knowledge about how homosexuality plays out in real life.
 
That’s where your stories, your personal experiences and your opinions can help a great deal. Sharing some of your thoughts with the rest of us will help spread awareness within, as well as outside the community.
 
So here’s the deal: As Lebanon’s LGBT blogosphere, we are asking everyone, gay or straight, to take a minute to think: How does homophobia affect you or someone you love?
 
Write 150 words or less and email to: myidahostory@gmail.com
 
You will be advancing the cause more than you think!
 
Wanna check our blog?

This is it: http://lebidaho.wordpress.com/
———————————

This project is a collaborative effort between LGBT bloggers & our awesome Graphic Designer!

Listed alphabetically…we are:

Beirut Boy: Email @beirutboy
Gay in Beirut: Email @GayinBeirut
LebaGaGa: Email @lebagaga
Lebanese Alien: Email @Lebanesealien
Lebanon Rebel: Email @lebanonrebel
Rainbow Experience: Email @rainbowexp
Raynbow Monitor: Email @LebLGBTmonitor
Graphic Designer: @zoozel

--pic designed by @zoozel

2011/04/19

Homegrown

Not a homegrown cruising website for Arabs, I guess we’re doing ok with the manjams of the world . Rather, the new forum AHWAA describes itself as a ‘safe place to debate LGBTQ related issues in the Middle East’.

I checked out some forum posts and it does seem like a good place to share stories or seek support from new friends (at least virtual).

There are many middle eastern countries represented in “Mideast Youth”, the team behind this commendable highly needed platform. But a flagrant absence of Lebanese youth behind the effort, perhaps because we feel less repressed? Let’s see how it picks up over here.

2011/04/16

Cut the Crabs

I'm finally over it enough to talk about it, that time I got the crabbies.

"Use a Condom or Masturbate" - Poster for
a safe sex campaign in San Francisco.
Flashback to this early phase in my sex life. I've recently broken up with my boyfriend but we’ve stayed close, with travels in between. Technically single the whole of last month I’ve been screwing around like a madman. Even with this guy from msn last week who must have been scratching his crotch everytime I wasn’t looking.

Now I’m sitting here on the couch and my ‘ex’ is kneeled down in front of me. No, he’s not blowing me to try and revive our flame; he’s holding a magnifying glass, wearing the eyeglasses he never wears, and scrutinizing my pubes. Plunging his nails under every infested hair pulling out each crab as I look away in disgust.

A glamorous sight indeed. Though in this moment of despair, he meant the world to me.

The little brown dots on the kleenex sheet next to me. They're starting to move around. They're live insects that were just there hanging on my pubes feeding on my blood. A whole bunch of them like a virus infection. They’ve even laid down eggs that are about to hatch. In French, ‘morpions’ reminds of nasty sex jokes while ‘la gale’ sounds like middle age diseases like ‘la peste’ or ‘la rage’. I feel like the dirtiest man on the face of the earth right now. I’m gonna puke.

To make things worse, I must have had them several days already, even though it's only today that the itching became so unbearable, enough for me to tell my ex I suspect something. So I must have contaminated that other hookup from two days ago. He will be cursing me next week.

If crabs are a common episode in many gay guys’ early trials and tribulations, and relatively manageable, they forced me to face the reality of random gay sex and sexually transmitted diseases and infections. Here was one for me with horrendous names to cope with like crabs lice or scabies, and that even the condom wouldn’t stop... one you can only prevent by being 'pickier'.

But what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger now doesn’t it? Well I’m glad I killed the little bastards that time around.

-Post, pic by GiB#2

2011/04/13

I heart Beirut


Speaking of Beirut nostalgia... do you remember
these old posters?

Beirut I love you (I love you not): a TV/Web series well worth checking out. In the same spirit but perhaps not the same quality of script or filming as Shankaboot, but very good, creative work -- a nice dive into Beirut of the street, modest picturesque Beirut, graffiti Beirut, Beirut of the old meets new slash east meets west, girls boys and jewish moms, should I leave or should I stay, the Beirut of Soap Kills and Mashrou3 Leila… of all of us Tareks and Yasmines.

The 12 episodes are all online on youtube for your viewing pleasure. Still, my personal favorite has to be the short film that initiated this short series idea for OrangeDog Prods. It was the 10-minute cute couple’s love parade on Amelie music by Yann Tiersen. I remember my eyes getting all wet and feeling like “It sounds good to be straight!” and “I wanna fall in love again!”

-- by LeGiBiT

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