Coming Out On the Internet
Africans and Arabs Blog About Being Gay Online
LGBT people living in Africa and the Middle East are at risk of imprisonment or worse if anyone finds out their sexuality. Many are choosing to come out online instead.
Coming out of the proverbial closet is a tricky process in a Western society of fairly open-minded individuals. Those living in more limiting societies and cultures many times do not have the privilege of being openly gay unless they want to be hurt, murdered, raped, imprisoned, or even executed. In the majority of Africa and the Middle East, the existence of homosexuality has been suppressed for centuries. Only now, with increased access to technology and the Internet, are LGBT Africans and Arabs finding ways to be out and proud without putting themselves at risk.
From Kenya to Iran, From Morocco to Egypt
As written in a New York Times article on Feb. 18, 2008 by Reuters, "If you haven't heard or seen any gays in Sudan then allow me to tell you 'You Don't live In The Real World then,' [a Sudanese gay man known as] Ali wrote in a message to other Sudanese bloggers." Ali is Sudanese and gay, and says so proudly on his blog, black-gay-arab.blogspot.com, since it went up in May of 2007.
A Kenyan man who identifies as homosexual responded in kind on his own blog when he wrote, "The Kenyan gay man is a myth and you may never meet one in your lifetime. However, I and many others like me do exist; just not openly. This blog was created to allow access to the psyche of me, who represents the thousands of us who are unrepresented."
Even though these gay Africans are protected by the annonymity of the World Wide Web, their public forum has elicted response from bigots everywhere. Threats of violence mix with sexual slurs on blog comment rolls. Instead of frightening the bloggers into silence, such backlash spurs them on, knowing that they are causing reactions. If people are reacting negatively to their blog subject matter, that also means there are other persons reacting positively. Instead of shutting up, more bloggers are being invited into the fold, spreading awareness about the presence of gay people in parts of the world we’ve been told they do not exist.
Thus far, Morocco, United Arab Emirates, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and South Africa make up the largest pockets of LGBT bloggers from this region of the world.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Iran’s president is a known homophobe who has been denying the presence of gay people in his country in recent months, most vocally when he spoke at Columbia University last September. Instead of viewing his denial as an agregious oversight, many Iranian gays welcome their invisibility in their president’s eyes. “They…argued that it was probably better for Iranian gays that Mr. Ahmadinejad denied their existence since that made it likelier that they would be ignored and let alone,” explained a New York Times article from Sept. 30.
Unfortunately, Iranian LGBTs suffer a great hypocrisy in their country: while Ahmadinejad refuses to acknowledge them, there are still heinous punishments if one is discovered performing homosexual acts. Lashings and executions are not uncommon, with two gay teenagers \ put to death for their actions three years ago.
Although gay Iranian bloggers are few and far between, they do exist, and they are fighting against a powerful enemy when they publish their writings. “It is the rare soul who is willing to go up against such blind and violent ignorance and advocate for gay rights and respect," said Richard Ammon of GlobalGayz.com which tracks gay news and web sites throughout the world.” Gay and lesbian websites and chat rooms are monitored and blocked in Iran, but new sites are opened to replace them.
As the gay movement gets more and more global, more LGBT persons will gain strength to push the envelope until, eventually, rights are protected for us all.
