Wath a live stream event about IRAQ LGBT refugees. Includes an Exhibition, short video documentary and talks, including with an Iraqi refugee. WATCH LIVE HERE

As the situation worsens in Sryia LGBT citizens face further dangers. MANJAM, unwittingly or not, collaborates with the Syrian Regime against LGBT people! Please spread the word!  Full story

What can be said when the President of the main funding body for Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar an overseer on the board of directors for Weill Cornell as a whole is also the same person who has proudly set up a charity and center that tries to rehabilitate gays and lesbians? Full story

People in Turkey are often compelled to conceal their sexuality from employers, officials and their own families due to fear of violence and prejudice, according to a new report launched by Amnesty International today  Full story

Gay Middle East responds to smear campaign that uses slurs in an attempt to undermine our work and LGBT activists. It uses false allegations that endanger LGBT campaigners. Full Story
 

A group of four transgeder people were arrested on the 12..6.11 simply for wearing women's clothes.  The incident highlights many unreported incidents, claim activists. Full story

By Sami Hamwi and Daniel Nassar,  12.6.11

Following the revelation that "Amina" was a hoax two LGBT Syrian Activists speak out. Full Story

Dan Littauer, Executive Editor, 12.6.11

Rome – Last night, Lady Gaga, the queer celebrity pop queen, sealed EuroPride March in Rome with an inspiring call to governments to defend LGBT rights and end discrimination and censorship, mentioning Lebanon and the Middle East. Full Story

Dan Littauer, Executive Editor of GME interviews Frances Guy  26.5.11

Dan Littauer, Executive Editor of Gay Middle East interviews Frances Guy, Her Majesty's Ambassador to the Lebanese Republic, about LGBT rights in Lebanon and throughout the Middle East. This interview follows her seminal statements in the UK FCO blogs and her meeting with head of Helem in Beirut in honour of the International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO). Full Story

A man was accused on the 25.5.11 in Dubai, of tying up his colleague and roommate, then stabbing him in the neck after accusing him of spreading rumours that he’s gay.  This story highlights important issues in the Middle East faced by its LGBT communities. Full Story

By Dan Littauer, Executive Editor 24.5.11

ILGA was blocked for the second time round this year for consultative status, in the United Nations.  It has been over ten years that ILGA has been consistently blocked consultative status. Full Story 

To mark the IDAHO, the International Day Against Homphobia and Transphobia, the British Foreign Office issued an unprecedented message of support for LGBT rights. Full Story

Kuwaiti school expelled two school boys after receiving persistent complaints from students’ parents that the two are gay. Full Story

Find out about the International Day Against Homophobia in Lebanon here!

A while ago the ex.vice-president, Omar Suleiman, used "Muslim Brotherhood" as an "Islamophobic" straw-man in all his interviews during the Jan25 Revolution to scare the world of what would happen if Mubarak left. The Muslim Brotherhood are using homophobia and xenophobia to attract people's votes like they did before during the constitutional referendum and influenced people to vote "yes"! Full Story

By Sami Hamwi,Syria Editor, 26.4.11

Our Syria Editor speaks about what has been happening in Syria in the last five weeks and the implications of the Syrian Uprising to the nation and, in particular to its LGBT citizens. Full Story

By Dan Littauer, Executive Editor 28.4.11

The word "gay" and its turkish pronunciation "gey" have been banned from Turkish Internet domain names.  Any sites containing such words faces immediate closure. Full Story

By UAE Editor, 28.4.11

Ta’if, Saudi Arabia: A man who wrote his mobile number on the walls of a local Mosque’s toilet, asking to meet for gay sex, has been arrested by the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the religious police known also as the mutaween (or hay'ah). A case is now being prepared against him in court. Full Story

By UAE Editor, 28.4.11

A woman in Dubai has filed for divorce after she claimed to have made a chance discovery of her husband's alleged relationship with another man. Full Story

Hussein Abdul Ghani, who plays for Nasr Club, refused to shake hands with another footballer who called him gay. Full story

The US State Department’s 2010 Human Rights Report on Qatar has been released, and it shows that Qatar is still failing miserably when it comes to LGBT rights. Same sex relations continue to be illegal and come with heavy penalties. Full Story

A Saudi girl from Turaif, nicknamed Sarah, spoke on a recent radio program and said she was expelled from her last year of studies at Abdul-Aziz University, for having a lesbian relationship with her hostel supervisor Full Story

A British gay man was ambushed, arrested and beaten in Saudi Arabia by the religious police. His passport was taken away from him and he was imprisoned for six months. Full Story

Yesterday, at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva 85 countries joined a Joint Statement entitled “Ending Acts of Violence and Related Human Rights Violations Based On Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI).” Full Story

Two post-operative transgender passengers arriving from a flight from Jordan were denied entry to Egypt yesterday (20.3.11). Full Story

Dan Littauer, Executive Editor and Roy Khoury, Beirut Editor 16.3.11

The Maronite Church elected yesterday a new Patriarch, Bechara Boutros Rahi, who is apparently a homophobe. Full Story

In one of the most direct attacks against the feminist movement in Iran, a prominent conservative journalist accused Western countries, particularly Netherlands, of promoting "vice-ridden feminism. Full story

Dubai, 4..3.2011

Two men accused of sexually assaulting a 17 year old Iraqi boy denied charges and argued that forensic tests support their claim of innocence. Full Story

Read the interview

The British Prime Minister, David Cameron was asked during his visit to Qatar whether it was right for the World Cup to be awarded to a country which outlaws homosexuality. The prime minister expressed hope that football could help encourage social change. Full Story

سامي حموي لموقع GME من سوريا

"يمكننا أن نفترض أن أعظم حدث عرفه العقل الذي سيُدعى يوماً لأن يبلغ بنموذج "العقل الحر" إلى نقطة الكمال من حيث النضج والغضاضة كان ذلك التحرر الكبير الذي لم يكن قبله سوى عقل مستعبد، غقل مقيد في ركنه وإلى عموده إلى الأبد على ما يبدو. أية السلاسل هي أقوى؟ أية الروابط يكاد يكون فصمها مستحيلاً؟ إنها، لدى أفراد النخبة والطبقة الرفيعة، الواجبات: ذلك الاحترام الذي يختص به الشباب، ذلك المخزون من الرقة الوجلة تجاه كل القيم القديمة والمبجلة، ذلك الامتنان للتربة التي غذتهم، لليد التي أرشدتهم، للمعبد الذي تعلموا فيه العبادة"... نيتش المزيد

The government run Iranian judiciary website reported that three men were hanged today after their death sentenced was approved by Iran's supreme court.  The three were arrested in June 2007 and later convicted in court for raping a teenage boy in Iran.    Full Story

A Saudi man was arrested a few days ago over attempted blackmail of a male student.  The man’s case is now under investigation by the Attorney General of the Kingdom of Saudi. This case highlights the problem of blackmail and criminalisation of homosexuality within the Arab world, and Saudi in particular. Full Story

On the second of January 2011 the criminal court of Bursa, Turkey ordered the closure of LGBT organisation 'RAINBOW'. This following a suit brought on by the Bursa municipality dating back to 2008. The Bursa municipality has been harassing 'RAINBOW' since early 2007 complaining that the organisation was engaging in 'illegal activities' such as prostitution and have previously made claims that the organisation in itself was 'immoral'. Full story

Iranian queers voices heard - radio Zamaneh!

Saudi gay gets 5-year jail, 500 lashes

GME Annual survey of safer sex in Lebanon

Jordan: Homophobic attack in a gay night club in Amman!

By Dan Littauer, GME Editor
1.11.2010

Every Thursday night, there is a gay friendly party at the Marmara hotel, Amman. At last Thursday's Halloween party (28/10/2010), around 3am, the two bouncers suddenly pulled out a gun and a knife announcing: “Get out of here within two minutes; otherwise you will be shot with this gun! Don’t ever come back here again or you will be beaten up!”... Full Story

On Lebanon’s road ahead:

Acid, homophobic jibes and liberalism

By Dan Littauer, Editor and AT, Beirut correspondent of Gay Middle East
29.10.2010

It has been over a month and Acid, Beirut’s famous LGBT night club, has remained firmly shut. “AT”, our Beirut correspondent, has received an unconfirmed (with the owners, who could not be reached) report that the club, in fact, has unfortunately been shut for good.  According to the report, upon its closure in early September, about 10 people were detained for drug possession. It remains unclear, however, if charges were brought forward against some or any of them.  If this report is true then indeed this seems very uneven handed, why target Acid and not the many other... Full Story

The Language Game in the Case of Prince Saud Bin Abdulaziz Bin Nasir’s homicide of Bandar Abdulaziz

Babalo Babalez

20.10.2010

The trial of Prince Saud Bin Abdulaziz Bin Nasir’s alleged homicide of Bandar Abdulaziz, taking place in London, has been a sordid and involuted affair. The reporting of the case has been as unstable as the various statements given by Prince Saud Bin Abdulaziz Bin Nasir himself and heavily characterized by the same cavalier caprices.

Full Story

Syria/Egypt: Much ado about nothing! The so called promotion of homosexuality in Samo Zain’s video clip

wWw.4EmmY.NeT.Samo.Zaen.Malaksh.Da3wa.Beya by 4emmy

19.10.2010 - GME News

Since the beginning of October (2.10.2010) the entertainment industry in Syria and Egypt was embroiled in an intense and ruckus debate over a video clip of Syrian singer (who now resides in Cairo) Samo Zain. At the height of this debate was the accusation, raised through a Syrian facebook group, that the singer is attempting to “promote homosexual values” through his video!

Full News

Iranian Honour Killing: Trans murdered by her brothers in Tehran

By Dan Littauer, Editor of Gay Middle East - 12.9.2010

Tehran, Iran. Farsnews reported that on April 25th, 2010 police found a 24 year old woman dead in her apartment, on Shariati St. After an initial investigation it became apparent the woman was called Mahsa and was a transsexual that had undergone sex-change assignment (his name before sex-change was Masood). Mahsa was strangled... Full Story

Saghi Ghahranman, CEO of the Toronto based Iranian Queer Organization (IRQO)

Syrian authorities release the group of men

alleged of “gay parties”!

22.7.2010 - Exclusive!

Syrian authorities finally released more than 25 men that have been under police custody for over three months for attending/organising allegedly private gay parties. Strong threats were made to them explicitly by a secret police office: "We won't tolerate any any future gay parties!"...   Full News