MTV’s Joe Maalouf: A Tribune for Homophobia and Bigotry

This guy must be so happy now that he can handle my spit on his face.

(Photo from Facebook)

It took just one screening of his program ‘Enta Horr’ (“You are free”) on Murr TV to mobilize the whole of Beirut’s dearest morality police around the cause he chose (out of the blue): to put an end to the “prostitution and debauchery” taking place in Beirut’s porn cinemas.

He must feel so damn powerful right now.

Only a few weeks since the airing of the program, one old cinema in Tripoli and another one in Beirut, were raided and shut down by the police. Such a relief for Lebanon’s desperate housewives and macho dads who must be loving Joe-the-morality-savior like their own son!

The guy must feel so damn virtuous.

The 36 guys who were in the Plaza cinema on this busy Saturday afternoon were all arrested. They are still rotting in Hell aka the Hbeich police station. They’re being humiliated, mistreated, outed to their families, and stuck in tiny detention cells with 36 degrees outside and no ventilation.

This self hating gay-in-the-closet must feel so damn straight right now.

Irony has it he’s just been outed by the gay community. Are you happy now, Joe?

Whatever one might think of the places that were raided – shady, filthy, immoral – they exist even in the most conservative Arab cities – Damascus has them, Amman has them. They’re not a sign of “too much freedom” but on the contrary, they are a symptom of a closed and homophobic society. They are a desperate choice for gay guys to have an occasional sexual encounter.

And that’s just what Murr TV has become, too: closed minded and homophobic. What started as a celebration of youth and freedom of speech when the station re-opened a few years ago, has turned into a conservative quest that is insulting a big chunk of the public.

Shame on you, MTV, and your lil’ Joe you must feel so proud of. Shame on you, 36 times.