Reading the latest Bekhsoos issue, I started thinking of a way I could contribute to Part 2 of the Special Edition that looks back at 10 years of LGBT activism in Lebanon. And it hit me: It had been exactly 10 years since I came out to myself (and a couple of friends).
I was about [...]

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:

I am a 16-year-old girl and a growing activist. It all began with a magic purple card that was given to me by an older friend. That’s when I started learning about activism. The day I got this card, I checked the website as soon as I got home, and there I found answers to [...]

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 [...]

Six months after the launch of Bareed Mista3jil, a collection of 41 true stories from the lives of queers and transgenders in Lebanon, the book is still making waves in local and international media. AFP have just run a fantastic story about Bareed’s impact and the news wire’s text is being picked up by a vast global media audience, most notable for us is naharnet.com.

BEIRUT (AFP) – They remain anonymous, but their voices are out in force and bold print: a group of lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women have braved law and social taboo in Lebanon with [...]

When I first read Bareed Mista3jil I was on my way to Ramallah. I was waiting on the Bridge, waiting to cross, stuck in that no-man’s-land that is the Jordan River. Of course we were being made to wait in the oppressive summer heat in a bus with barely any air-conditioning. When I realized the [...]