I watched my grandmother’s funeral from a distance, her body mingled with the earth covering her grave. My grandmother never  strayed away from the stereotype of an Arab woman. She married  young and made lots of children, buried her own husband and joined  him soon after. I’ve never seen my grandmother speak up to [...]

يسألني كثيرون من غير المثليين عن علاقاتي الحميمة مع الرجال وعن الحياة المثلية. بعض الأسئلة تتكرر، وقد لاحظت أن بعضها على الرغم من سخافتها، قد تكون منطلقا لنقاش حول التركيبة الإجتماعية السائدة. سأحاول الإجابة عن بعض هذه الأسئلة، كما أدعوكم/ن لكتابة أسئلة وجهت لكم/ن أو إجابات إستهدمتموها للرد عليها.

س: لماذا يجب أن تتكلم عن حياتك الجنسية طوال الوقت؟ لماذا يجب أن تخبر كل الناس بأنك مثلي؟ هل تسمع رنا تتكلم عن حبيبها وحياتهما الجنسية طوال الوقت؟ هل تسمع طارق يتحدث عن زوجته وفراشهما الزوجي مثلك؟

In an article published February 11, 2010, English-language UAE-based newspaper Gulf News contributed to the homophobia frenzy of the recent years with a piece called “Too close for comfort: Homosexuality in schools.” Growing concerns over what officials are calling an epidemic of “boyat” (butch lesbians) led the authorities to launch a state-sponsored correctional campaign entitled “Excuse Me; I’m a Girl” in 2009 [...]

With a lot of drive and ambition, one year ago, a group of young feminists launched the Feminist Collective (FC) in Beirut. “After an exciting feminist 2009, lots of achievements, lots of disappointments, always challenging, always enriching, after a few months of hiatus that were not without brainstorming & conversations, today we re-launch a re-attempt at a feminist collective organized differently for 2010 [...]

And… we’re back! We received so much acclaim for the January 11 issue that we decided to leave it on for a couple of weeks. Well, ok, that’s only partly true. Some of our team members are also to blame. We’re back now & are continuing our historic streak with new articles. Enjoy!

Remember this one? You probably don’t, but this was the poster of one of the very first public LGBT [...]

This week and next, we’ll be looking back at a decade of LGBT activism in Lebanon, counting down our favorite moments and analyzing our greatest accomplishments. As we turn a new page of a new year, we must also acknowledge all the work it took to get us here. We start with the Top 10 Lebanese LGBT publications that came out over the past 10 years. I cannot but stand in awe of the amazing feat accomplished collectively by individuals and organizations working for LGBT justice in Lebanon. Here they are in chronological order:

Lebanon-based LGBT organization Helem launched on Monday, December 21, 2009 in Beirut a groundbreaking report on the legal situation of homosexuals in Arab countries.

Funded by the Ford Foundation, the publication, titled “Homosexual Relations in Penal Codes: General Study on Laws in Arab Countries with Reports on Lebanon and Tunisia”, is part of a series of thematic researches that address the effect of Article 534 on the political, civil, economical, social [...]

“It all revolves around the number five. When I was young, I was known to be ghannoujet el beit. People would always come to cuddle me, I never said no! I was young when these experiences happened to me and I do remember them as if they happened yesterday, like a nightmare that will never end. Every time I face it, I make it disappear for a while, only to sneak up on me a couple of months later [...]

Sunbula: Arab Feminists for Change & the Global Fund for Women presented two staged readings of “Bareed Mista3jil: True Stories” by Meem, a community of LBTQ women in Lebanon this past week in San Francisco and Berkeley. We received a letter from Saida, one of the organizers:

My dear Sisters, I have the distinct pleasure of acting as the Artistic Director for two staged readings of your wonderful book Bareed Mista3jil [...]

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