GiB#2 | Summer’s Gonna be Hot

It was time for a good night dancing, and all I had to do was choose from the multitude of DJs gigs going on that weekend and the following one. Big names playing in town both weekends, and even bigger ones announced for April. It’s still only March but the cadence looks already like June!

So it was the Cosmic Gate & John 00 Fleming gig at Forum de Beyrouth last Saturday. Another success by NRJ/Poliakov, although the music was not my favorite, and the crowd not the hottest.

It seems like yesterday when we were offered our first true “laser show” experience at an event in Beirut. But today, it looks as though it has become standard for a Beirut gig of this scale, to boast incredible lighting, laser show, sound system, VJ’ing, not to count the dancers, fire blowers, and other aliens marching in the crowd – all by keeping the entrance around 40$.

If this is not just a temporary Spring revival and it keeps going the same way till summer, it’s about to get really, really hot around here…

GiB#2 | Arab Naïveté and the Silk Cocoons

Picture Lebanon as one of its trees, the mulberry tree / shajrit toot / mûrier; Picture its people as the silk-making worms.

The worms wander around the branches all day and night, going back and forth between the small and larger branches, feeding on fresh leaves or weaving silk cocoons, much of it ugly, some of it nice.

The worms are all living some kind of a love-and-hate relationship with the naturally beautiful tree that is their country. Many of the worms have long turned butterflies, and have gone seeking new horizons on Faraway trees. The tree gets busy around summertime, when many native and foreign butterflies, black or bright, come visiting.

Many worms, most notably GiB worms, are busy most of the time nesting their silk cocoon. Cocoons around their life at home, their life at work and their social life.

Some GiB worms wait impatiently for the weekend to come down from their little branch, and gather with fellow GiB worms on the tip of a handful of little Beirut branches, to feed together on Acid and Milk leaves.

Some GiB worms occasionally bump into each others on shady branches called Corniche or Freeway. Other GiB worms prefer to meet GiB worms from the comfort of their cocoons using Internet branches called Manjam, Gaydar or Facebook.

Time goes by on this sun-bathed tree as the majority of its GiB worms stays quiet, untiringly wrapping their repressed and e-based double-lives in thick and sick cocoons.

You can tell the many GiB-ophobic worms by their traits of the family, macho and conservative type, but the GiB worms have learned to deal with it by just ignoring them. Generally the straight worms don’t seem to mind the GiB worms, some actually feed on them for fun or business, but the reality is that the majority of straight worms can’t even tell a GiB worm.

Remember this is a third world tree, it’s Arab and it’s messy. So messy that the subtly-GiB looks and acts of GiB worms easily go unnoticed and unquestioned around the branches, at least in Beirut. What holds true for these two presumably GiB-ophobic worms getting intimate after an exhausting day at the construction site (Photo from Charles Fred’s Flickr), also holds true for borderline-gay appearance and behavior of GiBs on the trunk, Beirut.

Because Lebanon’s worms know by instinct that they would be left alone to die if the tree were to dry, keeping the tree alive remains the common struggle of all. So after going through many storms and droughts, the tree’s got used to feeding on substances called “Whatever Happens”, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, and “Live and Let Live”.

Now add to the mix a touch of this common naiveté that prevails in third-world trees, naiveté about the reality of GiB matters and other disturbing things – a powerful substance made up of misinformation, self-denial and taboo. The result is plain and simple: the existence of GiB worms on the tree might be considered positive by some, negative by others, but it is, by any scale, so very secondary…

…for the tree’s crowded, but it’s here to stay, sexy and cruel, selfish and poor; good thing it’s got some fine silk and pretty butterflies, too!

GiB#2 | Rainbow Tea Tasting

It's a first. Starting this Sunday, the GiBs might have a new weekly hangout for Sunday afternoons, a European style tea dance party that promises to be fun, hot and trendy.

Taking place at EM Chill in Mar Mikhael, which has been making strides lately in promoting musical diversity and local talent. Does Beirut have a Tea Dance Party of its own at last? Let's make it happen!

GiB#2 | Go FAG Yourself!

Who the hell would call a shop “FAG”?!

Well, this guy in Jdeide did.

We should have him pose (proudly) in front of his shop and give him free publicity. How's that for an anti gay-bashing revenge? I bet he won’t even have a clue.

GiB#2 | Cotton Candy HIs and LOs

A couple years ago a bunch of folks realized – rightly so – that Beirut’s night scene could use a little more (pink) spice indeed. They went ahead and created a label, and started to throw out gigs, about once a month, that brought together a growing crowd of partygoers. They picked unusual, underground venues, hopping from a warehouse to an artist’s loft, from a rooftop to a deserted cinema, from a pool to a hotel suite.

Building on hype and word-of-mouth, in the beginning and for some time Cotton Candy has been able to build a fun, eclectic, LGBT-friendly crowd of likeminded party people. Every regular likes to remember their own favorite, that unforgettable Cotton Candy night.

Cotton Candy is still going, but since year 2 the parties have been hit or miss. On the good ones, the in-house DJs DJette, Tia & Romax, Jade (Basement) or Ordinary K set the place on fire so bad, the venue is trippy, the people pretty and the theme witty, and the vibe turns out great.

 At too many other gigs however, especially during the course of 2009, Cotton Candy seemed to be falling in the hole it dig for itself. Alternative turning Commercial. Eclectic turning Wannabe. Underground turning Suffocating. BYOB (bring-your-own-bottle) turning $50-Covers. Adult Adolescent turning Teenager. Creative turning Junk. Trashy turning Cheap. And GiB Loyalty was turning Boycott...

But then came the last two months’ Cotton Candies which fell more on the better side. Did the organizers get the wake-up call, and is Cotton Candy getting back on track? We GiBs certainly do hope so!

GiB#2 | Growing Up a GiB Village -- Monot Scores One (Half)

Another GiB joint opens up in Monot. Seems to be targeted at the bear(ded) scene - Wolf beware!

Is the crown on the logo that of a queen or a king? Can't decide...But I can already picture the bunch of self-proclaimed Kings bellydancing at Boshka on a boys-night-out.

Anyway, I hope it won’t turn out as crappy as the signs.

GiB#2 | Up for a Scrub?

Gay bathhouses (or ‘saunas’) are well rooted in Western gay culture and in many large cities of the world. Beirut doesn’t have any gay saunas worthy of the name, however history left us GiBs with a somewhat similar thing: the Hammam’s (aka Turkish baths). It used to be that the public baths played a social role during the Ottoman influence on the region (lasting until the 1900’s), a place where men – and women on specific days – would go to unwind, purify their body and socialize. I don’t know exactly who used to go there back then, if it really included intellectuals and politicians as they say, and whether the Hammam used to have a gay or libertarian connotation at all. It might be that the lines were more blurry back then anyway... But since then these Ottoman relics have clearly taken a sharp GiB turn!

After many of them closed down through the years, two authentic hammams are still standing today: hammam el Nuzha (1920’s) off the Ring in Beirut (the pics are from its entrance and lobby area), and hammam el Abed (1800’s) in the old souks of Tripoli. These two look so kitsch that going there is like taking a trip back in time. There’s also a third bathhouse, this one more modern, called Shehrazade near the stadium in Bourj Hammoud. To the curious and the horny, these can be interesting and fun places to visit.

But unlike the openly gay bathhouses abroad, Lebanon’s bathhouses have nothing nearly as explicit as the closed cubicles, the dark rooms, the sling rooms and the gloryholes that are commonplace elsewhere. The amenities here are usually limited to a steam room, a dry sauna, showers, and massage rooms, although Shehrazade also has a pretty big Jacuzzi. On the downside, the amenities are not very well maintained, making the hygiene of these worlds of water highly questionable: you can’t help but think twice before putting on the flip-flops and towels they give you as you come in, and wonder whether you’re not actually stepping into a world of fungus instead.

 Until it closed down a couple years ago, Hammam el-Sheikh near the Cola roundabout was the closest thing Lebanon ever had to a real gay bathhouse. It seemed to be a quite successful business in the beginning, which was astonishing given its location in this populous and mostly Muslim part of the city. At some point, el-Sheikh looked like it was becoming the official pre-party for Acid on weekends. Picture GiB queens in une-pièce swim suits gathered in an old-style picturesque architecture, dancing to Arabic music around a large indoor pool with bar area, tiptoeing along the watercourse connecting the pool to the Jacuzzi, then sneaking in to the shady waterfall tunnel leading up to a not-so-secret 5mx5m dimly-lit vault, the 'darkroom'. Isolated by water from outside sight, light, and sound, GiB-in, GiB-out, this one room was probably the most private and safe kinky public GiB spot (ever) in Lebanon!

If you’re going to visit (what remains of) the bathhouses for action, things won’t be as straightforward as you would hope. Action between customers is quick and furtive, and it feels like the staff are constantly playing police with the men getting touchy. As for the local staff – mostly Syrians and Egyptians of all ages – they have access to the private rooms where they provide optional services such as massage, soaping and body scrubs. 

It’s your choice whether to go for the experienced 60-year old scrubber and get a quality treat, or choose the 20 year-old hunk pretending to know massage, who’ll try to include a 5-minute rental of his body into the deal, only to then remind you incessantly not to forget to tip him through the cashier on  the way out since you’re not carrying any money on you. Now how’s this for embarrassment, as you’re paying for your services on the way out, when the cashier shouts out loud for the whole place to hear: “w 3achra la 7assan! w 3achra la shebeb!” (“+ 10 for Hassan, and 10 for the boys!”).

 

GiB#2 I Male Arabia in-a-box

It strikes me every time I return from travel, how much testosterone flows in the streets of Beirut.

It can’t escape you as soon as you get there: The drive from the airport towards the city center takes you right through the southern suburbs of Beirut (until they build the next bridge to ride above it), one of the most densely populated areas of the city. The sex ratio on the streets of Beirut Suburbia is obvious, weighted heavily towards men, unlike what they say it is in the clubs. For the streets are full of men who hang around outside all day, seemingly with not much to do, while their women are probably hanging out at home somewhere in Lebanon or back in Syria, Egypt, Iraq or Soudan.

Mostly your average working-age Arab guys – shop owners, mechanics, street merchants, or free-floating workers on the hunt for underpaid work hours. They’re typically wearing undershirts and jogging pants, work uniforms or old-fashioned clothes, and maybe underwear like these ones I saw in Souk-el-Ahad. As far as the physics of it,  there is certainly one for every taste. Skin tones ranging all the way from light to dark, hair colors from black to red (great-grandma had a fling with a Crusader), bodies from skinny to buff, from soft to hairy. Ugly, fat, cute or pretty. But as far as chemistry for us GiBs, this is probably not boyfriend material and not our cup of tea at least for those more into the metrosexual type. Although a GiB friend tells me all sorts of great things about the now-regular (paid) lover he picked up from the crowd!

Based on some tourist feedback I got, it is these raw and masculine Arab men, and not the guys-next-door of Beirut (or the sophisticated GiBs for that matter), that make up much of the erotic energy that emanates from this city, that seeds its ground. It took me an absence from the country to be able to see this manly mass as a feature for Beirut, as it clearly creates a fertile ground for a middle-eastern flavored fantasy!

GiB#2 | Growing a GiB Village -- Monot or Mar Mikhael?

 The newcomer to the GiB map, Avant-Garde (off the ‘Ring’) is not quite as avant-gardiste as advertised. The bar/resto/club seems to be confused, and confusing, in many ways: how it’s set up, what it tries to be, its music and its lighting strategies. The few times I tried it, it was wannabe DJs spinning for a non-festive crowd, and always seemed to be either too empty, or too crowded. That said, GiBs certainly welcome this new addition to this underserved niche that is the GiB night scene, which is not only small, but also fragmented into sub-niches catering to different crowds. I must say however that I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the food there and the new faces. Not to mention Wednesday Karaoke which can be hilarious if you get the chance like me to trip over a GiB doing Dalida.

But what Avant-Garde gets the most credit for is its location, at the lower end of good old Monot. For many of us 20- and 30-somethings, GiBs and others, our first barhopping (or even drinking) experiences are set across, under and over the side streets of Monot in the 90’s. It’s the first bar district worthy of the name that our generation ever had, and it still embodies these memories. Sad story for Monot after its boom in the late 90s, as it was hit by the residents’ lobbying campaigns against the disturbance caused by its extending night scene, later followed by the security issues in that area starting 2005. By which time the competition from Gemmayze had fully kicked in, leaving Monot to melt down back to its basic spots around Pacifico.

In this context, the flourishing Avant-Garde might well be signaling the start of a grass roots effort taking place in Monot, if other spots decided to pursue this effort to maybe one day make Monot the gay district of Beirut. In my opinion Monot has at least as much character and charm as Gemmayze, which has gone too mainstream and far too crowded, and it sure has the past experience and the potential it needs to rebuild an underground scene from the ground up and become GiB land. To those who get bothered at the thought of having a “Village” in Beirut, which would do nothing but ghettoize the GiBs, I hear you. But considering that it would be located in the heart of the city, right there where it all started, would certainly be a plus.

The other area that is a strong contender in my mind to become the future ‘GiB Village’ of Beirut is Mar Mikhael. Unlike Monot, Mar Mikhael is starting from scratch, with a new hangout opening every month or so, and while it seems to be very dynamic and GiB friendly lately, it faces the risk of turning into nothing but a pale continuation of Gemmayze street, which is itself extending further every year. But for now Mar Mikhael sure is on the right track, and it’s not me being too Gibby-minded to see it evolving in the GiB direction. Check out this piece from our infamous gay journalist and DJ ZM, who also writes under a couple pseudos in L’Orient Le Jour (way to write as a she!), where he describes Mar Mikhael as “le Marais beyrouthin” (le Marais is the gay village in center Paris).

Mon carré des Bermudes
Par Marguerite K. | 23/12/2009

Hotte d’or
Il y a un carré magique. Dans un quartier magique : Mar Mikhaïl. J'ai dit à Houssam, un jour qu'on s'y promenait : c'est le Marais beyrouthin. Le petit Berlin. Le laboratoire de cette capitale-tentacule où se cuisine tout ce qui sera hype et hyperbranché dans quelques mois. J'aime marcher dans Mar Mikhaïl. Je déambule. Et c'est une tour de Babel. On y parle toutes les langues, on y voit toutes les couleurs et on y renifle des odeurs qu'on croyait perdues. On touche même des espèces rares. Dans la boutique de la rue se croisent l'ouvrier en manque de conserves, des haricots souvent, et la jeune architecte suprabranchouille qui cherche une lampe. Il y a aussi la concierge d'un immeuble Yacoubian made in Beyrouth, le photographe en mal d'amour, un jeune couple qui ne comprend plus rien et ne veut plus rien comprendre, et puis une vieille folle et son canari. Ce quartier me plaît parce qu'il survivra à tout, même à une explosion nucléaire ; ce quartier s'autosuffit. Ce quartier est magique et il y a un carré magique. Un : Papercup. Cette librairie-salon de thé a été rêvée par une Rania Naufal mi Anaïs Nin mi Dita Von Teese. Andy Warhol aurait adoré s'y étendre. Cet espace dédié au beau et au bon est bourré de surprises. C'est une petite oasis européenne où s'agglutinent ceux qui veulent découvrir et ceux qui restent couverts, ceux qui veulent revoir et ceux qui veulent être vus. J'aime. Deux : Paula K. Dans cette boutique tenue d'une main très Veuve Clicquot par la over-Bree Van de Kamp Joumana Abillamaa Comaty, il y a les folies de Paula K. Elle invente puis réinvente le vêtement d'une femme et chaque femme devient Farah Diba, chaque femme devient toutes les femmes : le tissu est anamorphosé, c'est de la dentelle virile, même Houssam s'émeut et exige que je ressorte de la boutique rhabillée de la tête aux pieds. Trois : Tawlét souk el-tayeb. La cantine du délicieux Kamal Mouzawak. L'hymne à la vie, l'hymne à l'amour, l'amour d'une terre, l'amour d'un pays, donc l'amour de sa cuisine, ce garçon aime nourrir les gens, les rendre heureux, sa viande crue fond dans les bouches, c'est du patrimoine estampillé Unesco, les serveurs sont jolis. Quatre : l'antre de Caline Chidiac. Là où elle fantasme des playlists d'une simplicité et d'une efficacité infernales. Cette sorcière des platines est aux DJ ce qu'Agynes Deyn est aux mannequins : une comète, un ovni, une jalousie et les réceptions d'ici et de là-bas implosent en un feu d'artifice de décibels, la Chidiac ferait danser une guillotine, un lit de mort, une pétasse beyrouthine, même moi j'ai succombé. Il n'y a rien à dire : j'aime Mar Mikhaïl, et mon carré magique, Rania/Paula/Kamal/Caline, est terriblement miam miam.
margueritek@live.com 

Got Milk? | by Art Hake

I was going through some archives related to Gay activism throughout the world and found this angelic face throwing an inspiring speech at an LGBT rally. I had no idea who he was: Dustin Lance Black, screenwriter, Academy Award winner for his work on Milk (2008).

I wanna step into 2010 with positivity, so I decided to write about this, even though it’s kinda irrelevant to the blog purpose.

This blog is really about Beirut and the underground life of GiBs. For whether we throw a party attended by few hundred GiBs or open a shop with a hidden gay-friendly tag, don’t fool yourself: we still live underground. And no matter how blue the sky may seem, we don’t get to see it except from the corner of a window, behind obstructing curtains.

Some of our fellow local activists try to change things. We have associations, but it seems their own members don’t get along quite well. The “Abolish 534” group on Facebook is short to 3,000 members. The straight alliance for gay rights is a good cover-up for GiBs who can’t stand up for themselves –and I don’t blame them.

Aide-toi, le ciel t'aidera ("Help yourself, and heaven will help you"). We can’t rely on others to help us out of our own shit, even though we never asked for it in the first place. Life’s unfair, hell yeah! But what can we do about it? Isn’t it time we do something about it?

California is debating same-sex marriage laws and we can’t even go out in the daylight. I just wish we had more inspiring personalities around us. Leaders we respect. People we can look up to. People who’s presence and support would help us fight for our rights in a more efficient way.

This is what Dustin said about Harvey Milk: “If Harvey had not been taken from us 30 years ago, I think he would want me to say to all of the gay and lesbian kids out there tonight who have been told that they are less than by their churches, or by the government, or by their families, that you re beautiful, wonderful creatures of value, and that no matter what anyone tells you, God does love you and that very soon I promise you, you will have equal rights federally across this great nation of ours.”

Happy New Whatever | by Art Hake

Recovery took longer than expected; after all, it was New Year’s Eve and Lebanese parties are not really limited by dawn!

Best wishes to the GiB community, may we have a breakthrough year in terms of social rights, freedom, blablabla*

Seriously, what the f*ck happened this year? As usual, my plans were drawn as the evening went by. So I had my fair share of hopping from place to place, swinging like Tarzan on his liana, but without the scream, although it could’ve come in handy -anyway, it was all within walking distance, including (not so) private residences, pubs, streets and random WC’s. New Year parties are always something around here, but that one was kinda exhilarating. While the BCBG crowds overbooked the various restaurants and upper-scale clubs promoting constipated entertainment at crazy rates ($450 for an Elvis lookalike party or an average of $1,200 per person in the main hotels), we GiBs along with the “others” decided (quite randomly I tell you) to merge throughout the streets of Downtown and Gemmayzeh.

The Cotton Candy party attracted quite a GiB crowd (mostly undertwenties, drove me nuts) but the streets were overflown with real sweets. People were striving for attention: dress codes, attitudes, a perfect blend of sassiness and provocation. There were people dancing on the police trucks, the ones that are supposed to remove your car if you’re parked on the wrong lane. Many Arab fellows everywhere, Jordanians specifically, or did I strike Jordanian repeatedly? At some point, I found myself with a bunch of Italians but we had communication problems. Then a Brit came from behind (sorry for the bad choice of word) and started asking the weirdest questions. I snoozed him, many times. Yeah that one was completely off tracks!

But even that did not make me berserk. What did were the horses. Not the ones you see after popping many themed pills. Real horses, with cops on them! That was our government’s gift, unleashed in Downtown on the 31st : a mounted force (what an exciting label). We can now claim to be a JiD. Jungle in Development. I hope that won’t scare Tarzan off…


* Seriously, I mean it!

GiB#2 | Gayin’ Beirut

2009 is drawing to an end. Mine started out with a not-so-fair dose of sad events and disappointments, which made it way easy to swallow that I would not get to see Michael Jackson (a)live in London. For Lebanon, 2009 will be marked as a challenging, yet positive year for the country in general. Challenging, because our greater issues were and continue to be here all along, haunting us, unresolved, threatening to turn the country upside down within minutes. Yet positive, because we have not had a war or significant turmoil, have fared better than many other countries through the global economic downturn, and are ending the year with a President and a Parliament and a Government -- what more could we ask for?

To top it, in 2009 Lebanon had the best tourist season in a long time, some say since the 70s, but certainly since 2004, the last “good year” since the plunge. It has been a while since Lebanon, Beirut in particular, has drawn so much ink in the Travel sections of the world press, where it's long been a hot topic for the Politics section. A recent study showed that Lebanon was one of very few countries where tourism activity actually increased in 2009, up 43 percent over the previous year according to the tourism ministry, although tourists have probably not spent as much as in previous years. What’s more, this record year came about at a time when all the major tourist destinations of the world saw their number of visitors decline in 2009.

Coincidentally, in 2009 Beirut topped the New York Times's ranking of the top 44 destinations to visit in '09 and was listed as one of the top 10 liveliest cities in the world by Lonely Planet. In that same year  Beirut was coined, in turn, the “Sin City of the Middle East” in AFP, “Back, and Beautiful” in the Guardian, a “Tourist’s Mecca” in Reportage, and questioned as “Best Party City?” on CNN... Anyone else wants to take a shot at it?

But what really counts in these numbers for us as GiBs, is that the increase was not just more (extended) families coming from the Gulf, but also more tourists from Europe and North America, including gay tourists (now we’re talking!).

Fortunately the buzz also holds true for gay Beirut, for it sure got its share of air time, too. To 'Sin City', Patrick Healy from the NY Times preferred to coin Beirut as the “Provincetown of the Middle East”, named after a low-key Vegas-type city on the U.S. East Coast where "Gay Life is Everywhere" (so much for boring terms like 'Paris/Switzerland of the Middle East'), while a German magazine described Beirut as an “Unspoiled Gay Paradise”. Is this an indication that Beirut's finally coming of age as a gay tourist destination?


But if you ever read these reporter stories, like the NY Times article where you learn all about the  BearArabia summer parties (because I doubt you’ll ever read any reviews here on this blog), make sure to handle the hype with care! As Richard Ammon from GlobalGayz.com (beautifully) puts it into context in his response piece Beirut: “Provincetown of the Middle East” - Not!”, it’s still not quite la-la-land around here (as here in Venice Beach, CA)!

GiB#1 | Christmas is so Gay!

Everywhere you look, gay people, dressed up in gay clothes, driving gaily to buy gay stuff for other gay people to enjoy. Houses are gays, shops are gay –hell, the streets are gay too!

Don’t you just love Christmas? I know I do…

GiB#2 | Playing the GiB Card

A couple years ago I tripped over this photo during an entire minute at the urinal of the restroom of Montagnou in Faraya. One minute's too short so I had to take a photo of it to find out what the fcuk this thing is about.

First time I see an ad so blatantly playing the GiB card in Lebanon… I’d be curious to know the outcome of this campaign and what has happened with this place.

Oh and in case you’re still wondering, this is for manicure for men!

GiB#2 | Party in a Steel Factory! 18/12/2009

Mashrou3 Leila gave a fun concert last night. Probably not their best musical performance, for they could use a little more presence on stage, and the new songs of the (finally completed) album are merely more of the same. Good thing there was the unique location to make up for it! The concert was in a huge warehouse inside a steel factory in Qarantina, partying in a garage/construction type décor, very trippy indeed! I hope they open up this venue again for a DJ gig some day, because the sound really did not serve well this band, it was terrible in some places, but it could be great with the right equipment and / or sound engineer.

The other cool thing besides the venue was the crowd. Attendance was much higher than the organizers had expected, so much that they ran out of free albums giveaways, then they ran out of drinks, and then of printed tickets! They had only planned for 1,000 people but probably drew 1,500. They should have counted with all the people who are back for the holidays… A funny thing happened when they were out of tickets, they used a burj hammoud happy holidays flyers for LL5,000 instead, and then when those ran out as well the rest of us came in for free – thanks guys we owe you one! But my favorite part in all of this was the lots and lots of cute twenty-something guys, with lots of GiBs too! But perhaps less than one could expect, given that at least two of the band’s seven are gay… wish there were more GiBs in the indie scene...

Oh and can someone explain to me the 5-minute Misba7-type  performance (GiB belly dancing) on stage out of the blue?

GiB#2 | Tattooed All Over

I just love these stencils we’re starting to see more and more around the streets of Beirut. Not only I find this visible face of Beirut’s underground art scene to be aesthetic, it’s also that it’s so well in tune with the city. It tends to highlight its history, and the scratching paint and bullet impacts on its walls. To me they bring back the image of war-torn Beirut that I have known during my childhood, with the life that kept going underneath. That these stencils started to appear during the severe repression of freedom of speech especially during the Syrian occupation until not too long ago, gives them even more of a symbolic value. It makes them sound like an outcry from the younger generations to the older ones, that we might well have our own ideas about democracy.

These graffiti by local artists are also giving more character to certain industrial areas of the city, some of which are starting to emerge as the next hip/artist loft -type neighborhoods in the near suburbs of Beirut. And the fact that there are so much more popping out lately is like there’s a popular uprising in the making.  

The pics I’m posting are some of the GiB-related material that I have come across during my nocturnal wanderings in the streets of Beirut, with one pic by Joumana Medlej. Not surprisingly, all of these stencils are found in Hamra, except the one that says BAREBACK (!) that I saw in front of the bus station in Jisr el Wati. But the merit of these stencils is not just being work by GiBs. For they are also among the first ones in Beirut: a superb demonstration of pioneering work by GiBs. 

If you want to check out more of these, this photo blog rockandahotplace and this guy's blog Beirut NTSC and his book "Archewallogy - Les murs murs de la ville" have a large collection of Beirut graffiti and stencils, with some additional GiB material too. I also came across two recent books on the same topic, Rhéa Karam's Breathing Walls and Tala Saleh's Marking Beirut. That's quite a few publications for one year! When I look at these images there’s so many of them that ring a bell, it’s like they’re part of the pedestrians’ landmarks by now. Some say the one with the guy from Sukleen is by Banksy… But as much as I would like it to be so, I doubt it really is.

This also reminds me of the story “Gay Community Thrives in Lebanon” which ran last year on NPR, the main independent news outlet in the U.S. One of the interviewees in the story is Hamed from Mashrou3 Leila, who talks about the stencil in the last picture. This stencil marks the current evolution of mentalities in Lebanon, where until recently the official language used for ‘homosexual’ in Arabic was akin to ‘deviant’ or ‘fag’. The audio of the NPR story is worth listening to and below is the excerpt from the transcript.

Keep the graffiti coming guys! I hope it covers the entire city one day. We should do a fundraiser to buy lots of spraypaint, what do you say?

“HAMED SINNO (Graffiti Artist; Student): The thing is, in Arabic, people describe homosexuality as ‘shaaz’ which translates to deviant, literally. And it's the most popular way of describing it, and it's kind of offensive, you know, like someone's basically calling you deviant and it stems from a lot of - like a lot of cultural understandings that are very oppressive. So the graffiti - the guy wearing a mask says who's a deviant? Your mom is a deviant. I'm homosexual.
MERAJI: Hamed himself has been the target of anti-gay graffiti, so he's using his graffiti to express frustration at his own treatment. He hopes to spark a dialogue about homosexuality in Lebanon, where it's still against the law. For Brian Whitaker, a journalist and author of "Unspeakable Love," a book about gay and lesbian life in the Arab world, writes that in terms of opportunities for gay social life and activism, Beirut is as good as it gets. Whitaker credits Beirut's ethnic and religious diversity.”

GiB#2 | Afterizing Beirut

So you’re desperately wondering what to do next when the club or bar you're at turns on the annoying extra light on you, it's too early, and you haven't had enough yet. If you’d been lucky that day, you’d be in a club or even in a random bar that occasionally stayed up late that night (behind closed doors, so never mind the license). Better yet, you could've had the best of both worlds by going out with your straight/mixed friends while still going home with the guy you want to spend the rest of the night with.

But no luck tonight Mr Alright is not around, you’re still on a roll, and it’s too early for munchees.

Well that’s bad news because unfortunately, it seems to me that there are less options today for after parties than there were a few years back. As far as dedicated after-hours I only know of Wonderbar facing Basement and Electro Mécanique in Mar Mikhael still left. Many others have closed down, and most of them have been short-lived. For some of the recent ones, Silicon near Freeway and Black Diamond in Monot closed down less than two years after opening, and word has it EM is closing down soon. But these were also examples of low-budget clubs that thought they could afford cheap decor while still securing a loyal crowd, when every other new club in Beirut has cost over six figures. Granted, the concept could be viable, for all what is expected from these clubs is good electro music with deep sound, and to secure a safe haven with 0 chance of a brutal kick-down from the alphabet soup the crowd's had.

Good thing the two main late-night clubs popular with GiBs, Acid and B018, are still standing, and stay up till 6. But at Acid (only weekends), chances are by that time the atmosphere will be that of an end-of-party. The mass of regulars does not tend to stay that late after their favorite part, the Arabic special that plays around 2 (my tourist friends too love it – how exotic!). So, the undisputed queen of late night Beirut remains the longstanding B018. There, almost every day of the week, the crowd builds up around 3am only to leave after sunrise when the day light enters into the tomb through its sliding rooftop, and the sound of electrobeats gives way to the morning prayer of the muezzin nearby. Trippy... Plus a good thing about the recently instated 25,000LL cover charge is that it has eased down the once-too-picky bouncers at the door, which works well for a last-minute boys night out.

As a general rule at these parties, the later you stay, the GiBber it gets. While the sex ratio is desperately not in favor of the straight guys to begin with, it is not uncommon for these parties to end up almost exclusively entre hommes, put aside the untiring fag hags. That’s when the cruising begins, as it hits the GiB that he’s about to go back home to deal with his horniness alone. Lucky the GiB whose over-substanced body is screaming “don’t touch me” anyway.

-- Recent update! A new after hours party in Beirut on Saturdays (well more like Sundays) called AFTER HOURS HOT SUNDAY from "961 clubbers" starting soon! From their info on facebook: Once every two weeks, different club each time, 6am to 6pm, 10$. Kicking it off with a party called "sex in the cave", you can't be any more suggestive. Could be lame though, let's wait and see. Maybe I'll see you there ;)
-- Another update: ElectroMecanique is now EM Chill, no longer afterhours, revamped. Looks pathetic from the outside, but will give it a try!

Where Have All the Good Men Gone? | by Art Hake

Men are pigs. But face it: we like bacon!

And I’m missing some old-fashioned stinky fun. It’s Thursday so I went out with fellow hunters to Hamra. Bardo is always a nice destination, especially on weeknights. It felt good to see some European faces around: music was fun (although their sound system would really use an upgrade) and drinks were pouring in. I was hoping to catch a flirtatious glimpse, but I guess it was too crowded for that: I could barely see beyond an elbow stuck in my face all night. Oh well, Basement then? Why the hell not!

Many familiar GiBs there, undertwenties mostly, thrusting their dear selves to the beats. GiB#2 would’ve appreciated the company, but nothing interesting for me tonight in that club. One hour of exposure is enough anyway, so we’re off to some greener grass. Behind the Green Door, no pun intended! But first, we had to cross Gemmayze Street, which was overwhelmed with stuck-up straight men and under-dressed women. Let’s not be judgmental. I mean we all know how hard they try. The man-to-woman ratio is becoming scary: 7 Eves for every Adam. We share the frustration, sista’.

And we leave you unchallenged access to the stuck-up straight men. You kinda always preferred the wedding material anyway. Which brings me back to my own frustration: where have all the good men gone?

Many colorful shots beyond this point, surrounded by a hetero-friendly company behind the damn door, I realized I was going home alone.

At least the holidays are coming; we’ll have plenty of time to catch up with the returning brothers. Can’t wait ‘til Christmas! Meanwhile, I think I’m gonna throw a desperate look at Manjam.

GiB#2| BEYROUTH :: YOU ARE INCREDIBLE :: I LOVE YOU -- Ferry Corsten 11/21/09

Ferry Corsten set the Forum de Beyrouth on fire last Saturday, with a 5-hour set that took the crowd way high (where it likes to be). Whether it’s MixFM or NRJ that does a better job at producing live gigs in Lebanon is a debatable issue, but this time the tandem NRJ / Poliakov (the vodka newcomer) certainly did not go cheap on the setting, with amazing light effects, laser show, stage, and sound. The crowd was perhaps a bit younger than usual, but this still showed to be the kind of place where you'll see two guys (or girls) kissing and dancing like there's no tomorrow (and no one around), or giving each others a 4am pit stop massage (for the straight version of it). And the usual GiBs certainly did not miss the rendezvous, dancing close in tight groups of friends, bare-chested and sweaty as of 2AM - you really couldn’t miss them!

GiB#2 | It's Official: We Have Big Ones!

The results are in, kudos to all you guys for making this real!


Lebanon’s men are high up there, among the best endowed in the world. We score an average penis size, in erection, of 16.82 cm, higher than France, Italy, Brazil and Mexico (15 - 16 cm), Germany, Spain England and Israel (13-14 cm), not to mention Korea, India and China (9 - 10 cm). And guess what, among the surveyed countries, we’re only third to Ghana and Congo (17 cm)! But we already knew that…

So clearly immigration countries like the U.S., Canada and Australia (12 – 13 cm) should have brought in less Indians and Chinese, and more people from Africa – although I’m not too sure if this measure of manhood is a part at all of their immigration policy. Considering the high standard deviation of average penis size in these countries, it is obvious that these countries would fare much better without the recent waves of immigrants from Asia weighing in. For if you ever get to experience the WASPs in the U.S. (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, who descend from the British and Irish) and the Québecois in Canada (who descend from the French), I assure you that you’ll be pleasantly surprised!

I haven’t looked at the details of the study, but I believe it is based on data collected during patient visits to their urologist. But why would I want to check anyway, since we’re winners? In the case of Lebanon, the data is based on research conducted at the Rafik Hariri University Hospital. Now, if I ever learn that their sample data was from their own patients, and not representative of the total population, then I’m moving out to Bir Hasan. Anyhow, I hope these results won’t embarass any of our fellow GiB readers. And if this can be of any relief to you (or maybe even soothe you curiosity), last time I checked I made it just a tick above GiB average ;)

GiB#1 | blondie

One way, or another, I'm gonna get ya'!

Or so says Blondie. I for some reason don’t get anything anymore. It used to be simple: limited resources, few cruising spots, creepy Internet chat rooms and rare but eventual direct crushes that lead to new friendships. Otherwise, most of us lived happily (!) in their cocoons.

Now it’s all mixed up! Straight men on Manjam (I mean come on!), wannabe GiBs in Basement, bisexuals everywhere and themed parties where you inevitably bump into old acquaintances who just should not have been there.

Is it possible that we’re actually building a community? And that we are now starting to assume our place in society??

There’s a hell of a way ahead of us.. Beirut is no Soho, or Gayxample but hey, we have so many businesses that rely solely on GiBs and that’s always a great start. Beirut is becoming hetero-friendly lol. Yeah I wish! Seriously though, it’s either that we’re invading society or that we’ve drastically increased our cocoon space over the past few years, including more of each others. I like. But I still don’t get it.

GiB#2 | Beware of the Undertwenties

They come out at night. They’re ruthless and they’ve seen it all.

Party animals, they’ll take over the DJ gigs till 5am, dancing the night away until you’ve fallen so low that you wonder if the 6 halves of their (local) ecstasy pills might be a better option for you next time, if you haven’t retired yet from the scene, than the pill that your friend brought over from his recent trip to Amsterdam. The undertwenty always beats you.

Carefree groups of GiBs, who flock the street in front of Acid like this is San Francisco. They can claim they’ve owned their Friday and Saturday nights since their teens, making you mess up your math as you try to figure out how many years you’ve missed of raunchy boys-nights-out. No, it’s not that Acid was still a straight club ten years back when you were their age – you had Orange Mécanique. Just admit it, the undertwenty does a better job than you did.

They know what they (don’t) want, they’ve tried this before (a lot), and have nothing to learn (from you). Date one and you’re under the spell, because he gave you some (lots of teasing and maybe a one-time fcuk), and he awoke the big-brother in you. Enjoy the moment, but count to ten. At ten, you’re alone, and you’re down. Don’t expect any hand to pick you up, the undertwenty is gone. Just hope you didn’t fall too deep, that what you heard from him won’t take you straight into therapy, and try not to think of the naïve bliss you felt each time you took out your wallet. The undertwenty outlives you.

GiB#2 | And off we go

A blog?! That’s so passé…

But I’ve liked blogs ever since I heard the name, and loved them ever since I grasped the idea. I’ve been wanting to have my own, but instead I sat back looking at blogs open up by the dozens, then often die out. I hope this one is here to stay. For as long as we’re gay in Beirut (GiBs), we’ll have stories to tell the world. Stories for fellow gay guys to relate to, for other GiBs to picture, and for friends to comment on. And for you the daring gay traveler who’s curious, hearing all the hype about Beirut, because we think you deserve to know better if and when you step foot in this tiny country sitting between Paris and Teheran.

Like most other GiBs, we’re gay advocates in our own way. By growing up GiBs, by staying GiBs, by living as GiBs, we’re advocates for the bigger cause. Each one of us gay Lebanese is a survivor - if not to war, to emigration -, and a living proof of concept, that there is a life to live as a gay in this part of the world. It is no wonder then that the gay voice of the Middle East comes out of here, in Beirut (Tel Aviv put aside). A quick tribute to our LGBT advocacy groups – Helem, we respect you – and to our gay-friendly legislators – WE WANT ARTICLE 534 OUT – , special thanks to the security forces for your live-and-let-live attitude – you have other fish to fry – , and that will be it for the bragging about how great this place is. From this point on, we’ll put it as it is. Raw and real – just like we like our men.

On Asexuality | by Art Hake

Instead of speaking of homosexuality, bisexuality or whatever that concept stands for, I think we should focus a bit on a-sexuality.

Asexuals are everywhere. They infest our clubs, our streets and our close circles of friends. Well logic says an asexual is out of the game. I mean he’s got the tools; he just doesn't seem to use them at all with others. He's non-sexual, non-interactive on the libido level. Even his innuendos are covered-up. But still, out of all the boys around, why do I always fall for that same guy?

Is it because he “could” be straight and that challenge makes him more desirable? Or is it because he’s ignoring me and I just can’t accept it? And why must I always pick him when he’s at the peak of his identity crisis?

We are society’s products and ours does a really good job at fucking minds up.

Asexuals lack something: guidance? Self-esteem? A sense of priority? (that job can’t be worth so much booty!) They should be encouraged to dip in the water. Nothing lasts forever and better make use of whatever we got, as long as we still have it. I’m just tired of having to do the job again and again. Mind you, the results are not that good either. Despite the tremendous efforts (and patience) we put into creating a comfortable and tolerant environment for them, most asexuals remain where they are. Very few dare crossing the lines: the hetero side is scary. The homo one is terrifying. The predator lays low, building a mirage of guilt-free images, but the victim needs more time. And time is a luxury gay men on the hunt can’t seem to afford. Everybody loses. Well occasionally, the family grows by a few and more late-bloomers join the La-la-land sisterhood. I hope it was worth the waiting. I still got blue-balls!