Speak Out: On Being Gay in Your Home Country Today
In one of our previous article titled Gay Pool Party in 1945, we mentioned in passing how homosexuality continues to be illegal today in over 70 countries. In said countries, same-sex relations are criminalized but in some others, “consensual same-sex relations and other homosexual acts” carry the death penalty.
To Adam4Adam members who are reading this right now, what is it like for you to be gay in your country in this day and age? We are asking because while there has been significant improvement made on LGBT rights in countries like Australia and Germany, in other parts of the world, last year seemed to have been the worst for the LGBT community.
For example, 2017 had seen a dramatic surge of violence against the LGBT community in the form of massive LGBT crackdown in countries such as Egypt, Tanzania, Indonesia, Chechnya, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, and Turkey. In addition, 2017 is said to have been the “deadliest year” for the community in Brazil what with “387 murders and 58 suicides” of LGBT people. On top of all these, PinkNews reported that “activists in Bangladesh, Uganda, Georgia and Nigeria have also warned about clampdowns.”
Then there’s also the violence on transgender people in the United States that left 26 dead in 2017. And just recently, Bermuda made a move to repeal gay marriage less than a year after it was legalized, replacing it with domestic partnerships.
Because of all these, UN’s first independent LGBT human rights expert Vitit Muntarbhorn has warned of a “brewing global crisis” last October adding that “immediate action is needed to stop” it. He said, “LGBT people are suffering a crucible of egregious violations, including killings, rape, mutilation, torture, arbitrary detention, abduction, harassment, physical and mental assaults. They are subjected to lashings and forced surgical interventions, bullying from a young age, incitement to hatred and pressures leading to suicide.”
Muntarbhorn explained how the “universal umbrella of human rights offered a blueprint for the respect of diversity and appreciation of our common humanity.”
That being said, what is it like for you to be gay in your country in this day and age? Is your country gay-friendly or is it one of those 70 countries or so where LGBT relationships are illegal? Share with us your thoughts and stories in the comments section below.
I have been meeting men, primarily from Middle Eastern countries. For those who are bisexual and can marry, life is not too bad at all. For those who are gay, awareness of gay liberation, the gay “lifestyle” we enjoy, in other countries makes it even harder for them. Religious and family oppression is as strong as ever, even when they have moved to the USA. And the transgender movement is really just a nightmare, as a minority of other people support it, and the unnaturalness of it incites rejection and even anger. So it is incredibly dangerous to go that route.
Being gay today in the USA is just okay. It’s no picnic. It’s saddening to see all the mainstream, centrist, pragmatic points of view ignored, discounted or disparaged by most voices in the so-called community. The big gay organizations that presume to speak for all or many speak only for their leadership. They truly are a gay mafia. They have forced radical positions on all of us, to our detriment. We may soon lose many of our rights, after forcing the transgender agender upon us and forcing their presence into our fragile community. Honesty, truth, principles do not matter to these people, except for their own. They have created an intolerant, puritanical censorship in which no one can speak their mind unless they agree with the groupthink. This is the old totalitarian influence of communism in the radical fringe that has been made mainstream. It allows Anti-Semitism in the form of Anti-Israel positions, and undermines true liberal values of ideas, free speech, democracy, and truth.
Next topic, please: HIV detected in “undetectable” men. How does that affect safety for a partner? Or if they go off the medication? How “safe” is it really?
Hi Don, let me forward this to our health experts to write about it.
thanks
David
My country is not gay friendly; there are laws that prohibit sex between men. This being said, the laws are not strictly applied. Only every once in a while we hear of a crackdown on gay frequented places, especially hamams. The younger generation is more accepting of LGBT rights and I am hopeful that laws will change. That was not the case of course when I was growing up. I am in my 50s now and I have always had to live a straight life.
Guess I am living in one of the 70 countries. I am living in Jamaica, where it is illegal to be gay. You can get up to 10 years in prison for “buggery”. However, currently it is not as bad as it was a few years ago. Very few persons are now willing to “tolerate” the gay person once their lifestyle is not in their faces, but they will never accept it. We have a far way to go, as we all have to be hiding and pretending to be something that we are not just to fit in and survive.
Hi Ryan, it breaks my heart to hear such story. In Montreal, Canada we can walk hand in hand and even kiss in the bus or cinema without anyone looking at us or rolling their eyes. If you are scared or wish to leave, Canada has a program for LGBT people who live in countries where being gay is illegal, so check out the website of the government here !
Big hugs!
Dave
So thoughtful of you Dave to offer Ryan a sanctuary in Canada. We need lots of people like you in this world.
I feel for you, I was watching a PBS Ch., and saw the persecution gays live under in your country, as someone whom is half Jamaican or Jamerican (my father’s side) believe me, they’re not that excepting of homosexuality here in the States either. I saw on this documentary where their very lives are threatened, it so backwards, ignorant and barbaric. They claim to be so righteously Zimbabwean, they know nothing of what Africa was really like 100’s of years ago, before the invasion of European/Christianity. Yes, there were gay people living openly, according to Isiah Washington formerly of Grey’s Anatomy, Grimes fired him, after calling one of the cast members a faggot. He was on the Tavis Smiley show telling of what he had learned with some research. But then regardless of walk of life, many peoples just excepted it as part of what it is, nature.
Generally in the USA, things were getting better and more acceptable for us gays. But our president along with this republican congress is trying to ruin it for all of us. They passed a bill that took down CL personals, and trying to hold websites liable for illegal activities, (IE, minors, prostitution, and trafficking). Now it’s affecting most all gay hookup sites, making it very difficult to post, hook up, and have legal consensual fun. The bill will not stop the illegal activities, but makes it very hard for us gays to meet others. Our freedom of speech is being taking away quickly not only for us gays, but for everyone. I wonder how long it will be before they take away the adult porn stores, all the porn websites, gay bars, bathhouses, even straight nude and semi nude adult entertainment. etc. Maybe everyone will have to go back to cruising the parks, bathrooms, malls, etc with the continuing threat of getting arrested.
In El Salvador, things have gotten better, but by no means perfect, you can’t go out and hold hands or anything but LGBT can have normal lives even if they are out and about. There’s a thin line between being out and showing that you are out. Essentially people there don’t mind knowing you like dick, but if they see any type of PDA … Things don’t work too well. Though society has moved pretty far in the last 10 years