Strategies for EDAHO
May 17th, 2010 | By nadz | Category: Featured Articles, Opinion Pieces
(7 votes, average: 4.43 out of 5)
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Another May 17, another IDAHO. Five years now I have been celebrating the International Day Against Homophobia in Beirut. My memory of each passing event is become less and less distinct – with the exception of my first event in 2006. In 2007, I remember we went to Masrah Al Madina for some panels on LGBT and culture. I remember Pierre Abi Saab and Marcy Newman on one of those panels. What else? I remember a movie in which my friend, Bassam, told us about his coming out to his mother. It was really funny. I remember the theater had well over 200 people attending. Fast forward to 2008, I remember IDAHO in Art Lounge vaguely. Of course, who could forget the huge rainbow flag dangling down the building in Carantina? But what happened inside, I can’t remember. I think there were a couple of movies including Beirut Apartment. And there was a panel that discussed something related to LGBTs and the medical field. Well over 150 people attended. In 2009, IDAHO was held over 2 days. I wasn’t interested in the first, but I did go to the second day where Nizar Saghieh spoke on a panel with someone else about LGBTs and legal issue. It was a fantastic presentation from him. We were about 30 people in the audience. And this year, I headed to an IDAHO that was held under the theme “Ana Shazz” (tr. I am Deviant) to attend (yep, you guessed it) a panel.
The event raised many questions in my head – and in the heads of many in the audience who posed things like: “Where do we go from here?” “What now?” “What have we really achieved in the past decade?” Examining the faces of the 80-something people in the audience, I recognized many as either activists or familiar faces from the LGBT community. And I see we have fallen yet again into the same cycle of preaching to the converted.
And yet, I believe that IDAHO is not a reflection of the queer movement in Lebanon at all and while I understand the feeling that our biggest annual gay event should in a way punctuate, summarize, or demonstrate how our movement has progressed in the past year, it is clearly failing to do so. Perhaps we should stop expecting it to. I did, however, promise to write up some suggested strategies of how to push our queer movement forward, so here are as many as I can think of over the next 10 minutes:
- The queer movement in Lebanon has grown remarkably in the past 5 years with tens of initiatives sprouting across the country. We, the more established activists, should wholeheartedly endorse and support such initiatives, especially those that are outside of Helem or Meem. Often times organizations or structured groups limit potentials of people rather than empower them. We should also respect all initiatives as having equal ownership of the movement. A group of young gay men have started a discussion group in Beirut. A group of LGBTs in the South are meeting on a monthly basis. LGBT students in a university in Keserwan are working on a film project. Our movement can only grow if we not only allow it to sprout but encourage it to sprout.
- Our movement needs a regeneration of leadership. With all due respect to the activists on the panel yesterday, but I have heard the opinions of Nadine Moawad, Rasha Moumneh, and Ghassan Makarem many times now. How about a panel that hosted a new wave of activists, for example? Even if what they have to say is not informed with many years of experience, it would be guaranteed to offer fresh new perspectives.
- Perhaps the activists need an event that is solely dedicated to discussing the movement. Often we find ourselves in activities or retreats to discuss our organizations or committees. While that is important, it is microscopic. Let us instead organize a day where activists from different groups and of different strategies meet to discuss how we see the movement going. That way we can map out our strengths, stakeholders, alliances, developments, successes, failures, etc.. and move forward strategically. Indeed the smartest strategies are the ones we discuss confidentially.
- At the risk of sounding like a broken record, our biggest strength is in our numbers. How are we harnessing that power? Why are the numbers of attendees at IDAHO decreasing every year? Often we think that people’s inhibitions prevent them from coming out to public LGBT events. I think that is false reasoning. It is the events themselves that need to be tailored to our community, and by that I don’t mean that we should be organizing parties or social gatherings. How many of our community really understand what it means to be queer? Or have overcome all the fears of stating: “Eh, ana shaz.” Not many. And we cannot move forward without our community. We really can’t, in my opinion. Even if that means slowing down, or getting less media coverage, or taking the time to invest in a larger range of people rather than expect them to follow the few who are out and vocal and dressed up in rainbows.
- Someone in the audience yesterday said we must do more research. Of course. We must write more, publish more, and then write more. The reason we started Bekhsoos is to encourage everyone to write more. I, for one, believe there is nothing more powerful than storytelling.
- Scratch IDAHO. How about instead we celebrate September 29 when back in 1999 someone registered GayLebanon.com? Maybe that will help us think more creatively & more locally about an annual event. Better yet, let us replace IDAHO with what my good friend named EDAHO (Every Day Against Homophobia).
And most importantly, let us continue to debate the strategies.
I tottaly agree with u! I see it hard not to work with the whole community, but it is not impossible, because as we become more organized, then more powerful and effective, many people in the community, will notice that we are strong and moving ahead and not only as they say ” talking and partying” so they can see support and strenght in the community which they can’t and won’t find it somewhere else. Also, these gender norms, are a chain, so let’s think from where we can break this chain, like which is the best entry point for us… And for the group of LGBTs in south lebanon, I wish if I can know where when how they are meeting ? Please send me any email I can contact one of them, to work with them, since I am in the south..
Best to all !
agree…applause..well written article, i wish it is well read too.
hey i totally agree.. since the start of the lebanese lgbtq struggle in lebanon back in 2000 and we are trying to follow the western model in what we do. following their symbol (rainbow) and celebrating their days (17th of may) we had our own political takes on international stuff but i dont think this is enough. working in lebanon and in the arab world has to have its own khosousiyi.. we have to start from the needs of lebanese lgbtq and the restrictions of the society rather than starting from the general lgbtq and the openness of western society (and this is very relative). when i first starting with helem years ago i thought that in 10 years time we will have our own gay pride and parade.. and that all the lgbtq in lebanon will gather around helem. just to realise that this was not the case and as u said the numbers are shrinking instead of expanding. so obviously we are doing something wrong.. this is what we have to tackle.. in order to improve.. and i totally agre with what you said about research and statistics.. funds must be directed into that field to be able to find how the dynamics of lebanese lgbt with their society differ from those in the west in order to be able to put a moderated strategy
As a matter of fact, this IDAHO out of all the previous ones, did the most reflection on the past and the last years of progressing the LGBTQ movement in Lebanon – this was showed through the title of the event, the sit-in, and the activities in the program from 3:00pm till 4:30pm that was held before your attendance to the panel at 5:00pm.
I have the following remarks,
I am sorry I couldn’t participate in the debate on the spot, I was working on something else in the back room but I was ears dropping on most of the debate.
From the corner I’m standing in viewing the Strategies (notice the capital S)
numbered parallel to your proposals:
1. There are two main parts of work being done in the LGBTQ movement. The advocacy part that is directly linked with the government and other legislative bodies, decision makers and partners (aka 534 and beyond)…; and the activity part which reflects visibility, existence, the public, political statements, and so on…
I certainly approve that being very structural can work against us in so many ways, by being exclusive and limited to a certain number of ‘professionals’. But there are certain arenas, specifically related to advocacy and legislation, that cannot be handled unplanned by people who are un-aware of the previous history of the movement, or people forming ghettos and fighting the system from behind a screen or a laptop the whole time. Thus the problem lies with starting from an even lower level: the need to inform and mobilize the public on what had been going on in the past 10 years and where is this going. Neither Helem nor Meem is doing so outside the boundaries of their centric activities till this year when we actually started talking about the history of how did we get here in the first place. I see the weight here on Helem more than Meem or any other individual or collective work being done in terms of advocacy and visibility (keeping in mind I’m not undermining the individual and collective work at all!) But that should not be the case. There is a massive lack of political will from a lot of LGBTQ groups to take a step forward because they are ‘okay’ with living the moment now, at least the visible ones because they are ‘immune’ to 534. The encouragement to make people act for a change is via combining all these groups and finding a common ground despite the ideological differences and being ‘out’ or not, which shall happen by getting rid of the ‘nationalism’ that all of these group had adopted as an identity..’Us and them’ or ‘group x and group’…
2. Completely agree with you!
3. I propose a joint local seminar for LGBTQ activists, attending as people working on movement not representative of organizations and bodies..khalas joumhoriyet el 7ezeb el wa7ad where one opinion is thrown on the table by 15 people. Are we in?!
4. Unfortunately, most of these groups, organized or not, do not participate in any public event. I disapprove of tailoring our events so they fit us. If we need to do a public sit in or statement like any other non-LGBTQ activists are doing, then why not! Tailoring events can wreck the whole point; example is proposing a pride parade with everyone wearing masks (where’s the pride?!) or not putting a logo on a poster but calling for solidarity and existence. That’s not tailoring that’s called being hypocrite and referring to the heterosexual to stand in solidarity with us to hide behind him/her. I’m personally kind of had enough of virtual activism and theories on what shall be done and point out who’s wrong and who’s right. The only thing that can be done with this massive number is making them involved – not necessary everyone becoming an activist, but at least aware of their socio-political
power and existence, physically more than virtually.
5. I think we just need a bit more data, then move to a strategy of how to get to others…which can be done in the proposed seminar? Storytelling is important if it’s done via sharing experiences as long as it has a message behind it…“this is how I was flipped off by the system, you might be next! Do something!” Sharing coming out experiences will get us no where because coming out is very relative; mentioning that personally I am against coming out or any form of justifying sexuality. Bekhsoos is an amazing archive and coverage and has plenty of amazing ideas displayed in it, but I would not rely on it as a core foundation (or anything like it) to be the source of mobility and LGBTQ liberation in the country. It’s like being like the RAF waiting the revolution to be televised. The majority we need are not nightlife fags and dykes and trannies, nor the ones who have access to a lot of things including the time and internet to follow-up with Bekhsoos or Helem news or whomever. The masses we need are the ones hidden from oppression and have no clue that there is an organized movement for their rights. The people who get caught and beaten in gay cinemas because they cannot afford hooking up in a bar or a club.
6. Certainly in for not waiting for an international event to celebrate and talk about these things.
I highly insist on sitting with a big number of people in a formal sit-down, communicating to see where these things shall go, dropping organizational barriers, dictatorship on ideas and thoughts, and getting the right people involved in it.
Interesting article. I couldn’t attend IDAHO, but on the basis of the booklet HOMOSEXUALITY,BISEXUALITY MYTHS AND FACTS i’ve been invited to train 30 young men and women who work for the red cross this saturday 22nd of may 2010. This training is part of a bigger project where the red cross volunteers initate debates in all regions of Lebanon to spread awareness on diverse topics of human rights, including homosexuality. They needed someone to help them find arguments to breakdown stereotypes so they called Helem. I guess it was important to let u know about this beautiful initiative from the red cross.
Maha Rabbath
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correction: according to the sign in sheet there was 105-110 people at IDAHO 2010. and even then not everyone did sign.