The Gay International and the Arab World

Jennifer:

In Joseph Massad’s The Gay International and the Arab World, he suggests that because of the work of Gay International and its organizations, gay men in the Arab world are in receipt of even more oppression.   The mission of Gay International, as Massad explains, is to liberate gays in the Arab and Muslim world by urging them to claim identities rather than just remain “practitioners of same-sex contact”. However, Massad argues that their efforts are creating “homosexuals” where they do not exist and by doing so repressing same-sex desires in places that were otherwise not oppressed.

According to Massad, it is common for men who have wives and families to be participating in same-sex contact and not identify with “gayness”. If the men were not oppressed, why did they still take on wives and have families? Even though society is aware of the same-sex contact in general, that doesn’t make it an accepted form of behavior or any less oppressed. If it were, they would not feel the need to cover up their desires by creating families while still participating in same-sex contact outside of their marriages.

What about the women? Is this fair to them? According to Weeks, “The sexual privileges allowed to men [in the Muslim world] are largely at the expense of women”. Is this to say that it is fair for men to be participating in sex with other men outside of their marriage?  Are Massad and others that share his opinion aware of the risk for disease it places on the wives of these men? Although I understand what Massad was suggesting, there are many cultural and health-related implications such as these that I feel should also be considered here.