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Lebanese Blogosphere Embraces LGBT Bloggers

MIND SOUP: Everyone knows that blogging has exploded recently in Lebanon. There's even a Blogging Convention in a mere couple of weeks where our very own Moudz will be in attendance! With that said, as blogging in general is becoming more and more popular in Lebanon, so are Lebanese LGBT blogs.

The blogs are very new, less than a year old and two new ones popped up just this month. The themes of the blog are as diverse as the Lebanese LGBT community itself. Posts include favorite music, coming out stories, bad dates, and complaining about Lebanon (the hallmark of a Lebanese blog). Most of the blogs are anonymous (due to privacy concerns and the rampant homophobia still present in Lebanon).

Beirut Boy: The author is a young, Lebanese businessman in his 20s. He posts about dating, music, fashion, and is an activist for gay rights in Lebanon. He (as well as many other bloggers) has joined the Save Aya campaign.

Gay in Beirut: This blog mainly has humorous and light-hearted posts about the gay life in Beirut and the parties that ensue by two Lebanese gay men in their late 20s. Recently, the blog's posts have become more serious by posting a 7-part series about the personal story of a Lebanese gay man who was arrested under Article 534 of the Lebanese penal code that criminalizes homosexuality. Here's the link to part 1.

Lebanon Rebel: Lebanon Rebel is a bisexual Lebanese woman giving a (much needed) female perspective to the Lebanese LGBT blogosphere. While she isn't as prolific in her posts as the other bloggers, her initial posts are also about LGBT activism and her own personal experiences.

The Rainbow Experience: This blog is run by a young gay teenager, Karim N., who attends a very religious all-Christian school in Beirut. This blog was only started about a month ago but has already garnered much support from the LGBT community due to his coming-out series (for part 1, click here). He also parts bits about his daily life, like good restaurants he's been to and music.

G-AZZI: A blog by Georges Azzi, of the founders of the Lebanese gay-rights NGO, Helem. The blog has some interesting personal stories, but is mainly a gay-rights activist blog. It is also one of the only blogs where the author reveals his/her identity.

Good luck to all the bloggers and here's hoping that the laws in Lebanon will change so that all the authors of these blogs can use their real names.

Comments

  1. Thank you Daisy for shedding a light on Lebanese LGBTQ bloggers out there.
    I also wish Mohammad all the best in "Blogging Lebanon".
    Keep up the great work you guys.

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  2. Thanks Beirut Boy, all the best to you too. You are also welcome to attend "Blogging Lebanon". Let me know if your interested :)

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  3. You're welcome Beirut Boy! I'm happy promote all the great work you and these bloggers are doing :)

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  4. This is a step in the right direction for all bloggers. I'm happy to say that the blogging community is very tolerant. Hopefully Lebanese society at larger will take notice!

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  5. hey daisy just came across your post, nice round-up! say, you prefer the "light-hearted" or the more "serious" posts?

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  6. Honestly I am a regular reader of Mind Soup and after looking at some of the previous posts I found this. . . All I can say is that this is sick and disgusting and it makes me cringe to see an acceptance of something so heinous WHAT NEXT?! Will you also advertise Lebanese pedophilia blogs??!!
    You have lost one reader
    What's even worse is that you've lost the integrity of what I once thought was a professional yet self-respecting blog.

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  7. GiB: I like both! It's great to be activists and to shed light on important issues, but you're also human! You like to go out and have fun. It's great the way it is.

    And in response to anonymous: it saddens me that you make the common mistake of relating homosexuality to pedophilia. If you do a quick Google search you would see that they have nothing to do with each other. Not to mention, you are absolutely free to think whatever you want to think. It's even more saddening that you would stop reading this blog just because you disagree with the opinion of one of the contributors. That just shows how close-minded you are.

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  8. Well at a risk of seeming like a hypocrite I actually DID boycott the blog but I was waiting for your reply.
    It is not me who is close-minded it is you who is ignorant of the facts.
    Here is some trivial information to look at: Numerous studies have proved that the homosexual lifestyle is proportional to an increase in HIV/AIDs infections, mental problems, and numerous diseases and please I urge you to check the validity of these studies. My personal favorite was the one conducted by GLMA (Gay Lesbian Medical Assos.) Here are also some statistics to feast your eyes on :
    According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control) a homosexual man is 50 times more prone to catch HIV than a normal man (the study was conducted recently in 2008)
    and here is a quote from a recent study "The Kinsey investigators indexed sex with the underage two ways, neither of which was completely satisfactorily for our purposes. First, 171 (26.5%) of 646 male homosexuals and 4 (1.8%) of 222 female homosexuals reported having had homosexual sex with someone aged 15 or less"Saghir & Robins Sex With the Underaged
    I actually have many more quotes and studies since, unlike you, my research isn't limited to Googling "Gay people are good". On a final note
    Actually I found these statistics for my term paper which I decided to slightly diverge from the topic of stereotyping to spite my English teacher who got threw a fit when I said "It is true that gay people are not normal" I just want to say that on an older post I commented on about AUB you said that at first I would like it then I would hate it like everybody else. Actually I have hated it because of this pretentious need to seem "cool" and "open-minded".
    Before you go all GaGa (supporter of sodomy)on me please check some statistics
    I would rather be close-minded than ignorant

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  9. Being more likely to catch a disease doesn't logically lead to gay = wrong. You are simply twisting the facts to fit your on agenda. I know the statistics and work with a gay rights organization. I base my views on science. Science dictates that homosexuality is normal and occurs in over 1500 animal species. White people gave the Native Americans syphilis when they discovered "the New World" does that make all white people inherently bad?

    Good luck with being close-minded. I will no longer reply to what you write.

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  10. Thank you Daisy, I just came across this post and I'm really glad to see my blog on this list :-)

    On the other hand, I am going to just ignore this anonymous comment, mostly because you said everything that has to be said. Thank you!

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  11. You're welcome, Karim! I'm always happy to support the LGBT community :)

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