Homosexuals of a Phobic Nation
Every once in a blue moon, an activity related to personal rights initiatives and LGTBQ rights takes place in Beirut. These activities, which appeal to a certain public, focus on the need to change the governmental dismissal of LGTBQ rights and the persecutionof people of non-conforming sexualities living in Lebanon. These activities are an extension of a virtual community of LGTBQs finding itself, most of the time, caught in a crisis between isolation from the “real” Lebanese society on one hand and being used as entertainment material to serve the Lebanese media on the other hand– turning this serious issue from a political struggle into a spectacle.
Looking thoroughly at the debates around homosexuality and personal rights, it becomes evident that such debates are mostly stuck in virtual realms between academics and activists, sometimes leaking out in a form of sporadic actions within the public sphere. Such actions shock the public in the message they convey; yet as successful as the message may be in affirming the “inclusion/ exclusion” reality, these discussions rarely succeed in narrating the story of queer people’s lives.
Identity of consideration
Homosexuals in Lebanon appear to be under constant questioning; they often find themselves having to defend their sexual orientation and debate whether it is an imposed (western) identity or if it is an inherent and natural element of their own culture. While homosexual men are required to defend their male roles by being submissive to the patriarchal values that perpetuate their behavior, lesbian and bisexual women are more likely to comprehend the intersection between their gender and their sexual identity due to the patriarchal values. The issue of having gender-related privileges is more obvious to lesbian, bisexual and transwomen than to homosexual men because of their social and cultural status.
Still, both male and female homosexuality creates confusion in the basic social realm as it threatens the foundation of the nuclear-family structure that societies have inadequately built themselves upon. Homosexuality is often seen as the grim reaper coming to collect the soul of the heterosexual family. And on some level, this fear of non-conforming sexualities is valid: a sexual identity different than the norm is able to stir a stagnant society on various levels; it challenges the invisible power that infiltrates the individual’s life in its most intimate moment, and publicly threatens the limits of authority have. Facing such a threat, societies look for passive strategies as a response, since resorting to collective punishment and violence places these societies in an undesirable position of confrontation and accountability in front of the international community, but and also because they have no resources to rely on for such actions.
Some of these responses are based on delegitimizing could be the dilution of the right to athe homosexual identity in discourses and questions related tobased on suppositions of mental disorders, and children’s sexual abuse and post traumatic syndromes, at least within the Lebanese context.
Perfect citizens = homosexual citizens
The main focus of the Lebanese state is to preserve its ability to rule among the many sects that “coexist” in its premises by maintaining the percentages of representations of these sects in its institutions. Despite this appearance of equal representation, citizens from all religious groups are constantly demanding more justice and equality amongst
the sects.
With this continuous relationship with the state on the level of representation and sects, then, it should come as no surprise that individuals have very little space to engage in demands and propositions that are not related to the sectarian formula, especially if these demands are inter-sectarian and are unable to evoke civil war. These circumstances enable the state to ignore the demands of LGTBQ people in Lebanon. Yet, significantly, in a country where life revolves around “coexistence” and the protection of the sectarian balance, homosexuals transform themselves from criminalized victims to the ideal citizens, since they are not able to seek protection from the state when they need it, and they certainly can’t threaten the civil peace from their often non-sectarian demands/positions. Homosexuals offer the state a reason to claim
power and authority, and their criminalization is used as a proof of the state’s protective role that often stops on the borders of the sects, only to rule those who live between sectarian borders.
One aspect that is often emphasized as a big part of being Lebanese is the abilitysacrifice. Whether they are conscious of it or not, homosexuals end up outside the borders of their sectarian affiliations, as it becomes the least common denominator between them. Homosexuals sacrifice their sectarian loyalties as much as their sectssacrifice them as partisans once their homosexuality is revealed. In addition to enriching the diversity of sexualities in Lebanon, homosexuality presents a non-fabricated example of an organic coexistence and proof that individuals in Lebanon
are willing to step out of their sectarian borders once a real alternative ground is found.
Life under 534
Activists concerned about discrimination against homosexuals have mobilized and created many resources to raise awareness about homosexuality, despite the shallowness and offensiveness of the discourse that delegitimizes them. They have created many safe spaces for hundreds of individuals arriving to “the land ofhomosexuality”, despite the existence of penal code 534,. This penal code, along with the social taboos against homosexuality, transforms the life of LGBTQs into a prison. If not shunned or abused by their families, the law might persecute them; if the law
publicly points their finger at them, their parents will also disown or persecute them. This vicious cycle, supported by penal code 534, no doubt Life under 534 creates a precarious life for homosexuals. As a result, many homosexuals today are hiding, while some have been able to live in a certain degree of freedom within those safe spaces that they have created. Still, whether whether they are largely “out of their closet” or not, all LGBTQs are waiting and working for real change..
Category: Featured, Nasawiya عربية, Sexuality جنسانية
Excellent points. In addition to fears that they get disowned by their families or sect, it is also interesting to look at how 534 creates an atmosphere (not to say culture) of impunity concerning violations of basic rights of “non-conformists”, such as the right to work or education or access to services.