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Being gay or lesbian in the Muslim Arab world isn’t easy. But as Ben Gilbert reports, Lebanon’s capital Beirut has a vibrant gay and lesbian social scene.

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LISA MULLINS: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World. Lebanon is widely associated with civil war, assassinations, and religious rivalries yet its capital, Beirut, is one of the tolerant cities in the region. In fact gays and lesbians live relatively hassle-free lives in Beirut. Even so as Ben Gilbert reports the city has a ways to go before you could call it the San Francisco of the Arab world.

BEN GILBERT: Being gay is hard enough in the US but imagine being gay in a country like Lebanon where Mediterranean machismo meets Arab religious and cultural conservatism. That was the environment Elias Haddad had to confront when he had his first sexual experience with a male friend as a young teenager. Haddad said the encounter left him feeling confused and guilty.

ELIAS HADDAD: I tried everything to be straight. I went out with girls and I started to do sports and do what all the guys do just to be straight.

GILBERT: Haddad, who’s real name has been changed to protect his identity, didn’t have another homosexual experience until 10 years later. Now he’s out of the closet to everyone he knows except his parents and family.

HADDAD: Because they will not accept it first of all. They will treat me as a sick guy. They will do anything to reverse me to a straight guy. They will not talk to me.

GILBERT: Still Haddad lives a life like any gay man would in Europe or America. There are dozens of gay-friendly bars, nightclubs, and cafes in the more cosmopolitan neighborhoods of Beirut like the one I met Haddad in called Hamra. But it is technically illegal to be gay here and social rules and honor codes can stigmatize gays and their families jeopardizing jobs and their lives.

GHASSAN MAKAREM: We’re finding out that there are many, many cases of unreported domestic violence against gay men in the homes.

GILBERT: That’s Ghassan Makarem, an activist with Helem, a Lebanese civil society organization that advances the rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenders. He sits in a gay-friendly café near where I met Haddad. Helem is the only organization that overtly advocates for gay rights in the Arab world. They have an office and community center near downtown Beirut.

MAKAREM: We’re developing a trauma service in case someone was tortured or faced any kind of trauma for two reasons. The main reason is that we do have some cases of people coming in who are victims of domestic violence from their fathers or older brothers and it’s usually young, effeminate men. The other case is that we have a few Iraqi refugees here who are coming into Helem who were tortured because of their sexuality in Iraq and they have to flee.

GILBERT: But Helem’s over-arching goal is overturn law 534 which makes it illegal for people to engage in “unnatural acts” and is used to prosecute gays in Lebanon. But changing attitudes may prove easier than changing the law. Only one of Lebanon’s 128 members of parliament – his name is Ghassan Moukheiber – is willing to even speak publicly about gay and lesbian rights in Lebanon. Moukheiber says decriminalizing homosexuality isn’t even on the Lebanese parliament’s agenda.

GHASSAN MOUKHEIBER: There’s no push. There’s nothing in parliament yet. The only effort is within civil society and it’s only starting.

GILBERT: Moukheiber says Lebanon’s powerful religious institutions, both Muslim and Christian, will probably block any effort to abolish the law used to prosecute gays. The divisions cross Lebanon’s mix of communities and religions – even age groups. When the American University of Beirut hosted a discussion of homosexuality, a first for the school, opinions in the crowd of 200 ranged from Liberal to deeply conservative. Helem’s Makarem, who was one of the panelists at the discussion, takes all this in stride. He says at least people are talking about the issue and with time he hopes to see perceptions toward the gay and lesbian community change along with the law.

MAKAREM: Our idea is to normalize the issue and then society as a whole and not just find a ghetto to live in because that’s very easy. You can always do that.

GILBERT: Elias Haddad, the gay man whose parents don’t know about his sexuality has had a boyfriend for nearly two years. He says he’s happy now that he’s accepted that he’s gay. He just wishes he could tell his parents.

HADDAD: I want to live my life actually. I want them to know and I don’t want to hide from them and the only issue, the family. That’s it.

GILBERT: For The World I’m Ben Gilbert in Beirut.

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