BERLIN: Six men whirled faster and faster in the center of the nightclub, arms slung over one another’s shoulders, performing a traditional circle dance popular in Turkey and the Middle East.
Nothing unusual, given the German capital’s large Muslim population. But most of the people filling the dance floor Saturday at the club SO36 in the Kreuzberg neighborhood were gay, lesbian or bisexual, and of Turkish or Arab background…
Safety and secrecy come up regularly in conversations with guests, who laugh and dance but also frequently look over their shoulders. To be a gay man or lesbian with an immigrant background invites trouble here in two very different ways.
“Depending on which part of Berlin I go to, in one I get punched in the mouth because I’m a foreigner, and in the other because I’m a queen,” said Fatma Souad, the event’s organizer and master of ceremonies. Souad, 43, a transgender performer born in Ankara as a boy named Ali, has put on the party for over a decade…
Hasan, a 21-year-old Arab man, sitting at a table in the club’s quieter adjoining café, declined to give his last name, saying: “They would kill me. My brothers would kill me.” Asked whether he meant this figuratively, he responded, “No, I mean they would kill me.”
Or you could be a gay Christian, say, in Houston.
Obviously they’re not from Iran, since they don’t have that phenomena there…
“Or you could be a gay Christian, say, in Houston.”
They are openly gay here. There’s a large gay population in Houston.
Or you could be a Jew, say, in any Muslim country.
As a gay atheist in Houston, I don’t get the gay Christian in Houston remark. Houston is actually a pretty good place for gays, as is Dallas. Of course there’s parts of town that you want to stay away from, but you probably want to stay away from those parts no matter who you are.
Now if you were talking about Vidor, TX that has/had their own chapter of the KKK, then I’d totally agree.
I know a few Gay Christians in Houston who don’t dare open up to their fellow Christians. For obvious reasons.
4 – or you could just be another whining fundie feeling sorry for himself having to confront history, science and reason. All those discriminatory phenomena.
Damn shame. Boy just wants to Dance! Dance! Dance!
#7 – That’s one thing I never understood. Gay Christians (or gay any religion). I can’t understand why someone would want to be a part of a religion that condemns them for being who they are. But then again, I can’t understand how people can believe religion period.
Religion and logic aren’t very mixy.
“Religion and logic aren’t very mixy.”
As one would reasonably expect, since one is a mental toxin, the other it’s vaccine/antidote.
#13, THC
Very good answer. Better than my sarcastic romp would have been.
#6, Daniel,
Now if you were talking about Vidor, TX that has/had their own chapter of the KKK, then I’d totally agree.
Ya, but they are “gay” in their own way.
Shortly after I moved to this “Bumfuck Indiana” burg, the local leader of the KKK was shot by his wife. I was later told that the only one who missed him was his dog. Apparently it missed the beatings. The Sheriff was quoted in the paper as wondering why this hadn’t happened sooner considering how many times he had beat his wife.