Five men arrested for gay marriage party in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia’s religious police raided a gay marriage party in Mecca, arresting five men
BY DAN LITTAUER

Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (religious police) raided a gay marriage party with over 80 participants in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, arresting five men.

The religious police backed by policemen and detectives, stormed a house in Mecca that was said to have held a gay marriage ceremony, yesterday (12 June), reported Al-Saudeh daily.

Five men were detained while the rest managed to flee to nearby mountains.

According to the report, party participants were said to be aged between 18 and 20 year-old men ‘wearing women’s dresses and make up on their faces.

‘They were dancing to disco music at a noisy party held to mark the wedding of two men to each other…police are hunting down those who escaped.’

Generally speaking punishment range from imprisonment and/or flogging to the death penalty.

Conviction and severity of punishments depends on the social class, religion and citizenship of the accused, whereby non-western migrant workers receive usually harsher treatment than upper class Saudi citizens.

The religious police encourage reporting of any ‘deviant’ behavior and deliberately entrap people for being gay via the Internet and other technologies.

Last year the religious police arrested five gay men during a raid on a health club in the Kingdom's capital, Riyadh following a tip-off.

Entrapment by the religious police does not necessarily lead to prosecution, but often results in life-long financial and/or sexual blackmail.

Ali, a 31 year-old gay law student in Jeddah told Gay Star News: ‘I really hope the other men have managed to escape safely and will not be caught.

‘As for the five men who are detained, even if the would be released without facing court action their suffering will not end.

‘Once the Hay’ah [religious police] have your identity on record for being gay, you are very likely to face financial and even sexual blackmail.

‘If families hear that a member is gay it is not unheard of that they would attempt to kill the person in order to avoid being "shamed".

‘If word spreads to employer or the wider community, then not only the person is likely to loose his job but become a social pariah.’

Gay Star News has not yet been able to verify the case independently.

- See more at: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/five-men-arrested-gay-marriage-party-saudi-arabia130613#sthash.3UVfTSRG.dpuf

Homosexuality on the Rise in Saudi Arabia

Result of an Oppressive Regime or Are Saudis Coming Out of the Closet?

According to an article The Kingdom in the Closet in the May issue of the Atlantic Monthly, many in the Saudi population, both male and female, frequently engage in homosexual acts despite the fact that it is punishable by death under Islamic Sharia law. Homosexuality seems risky in a kingdom sometimes called "The Land of The Two Holy Mosques", a reference to Makka and Medina, Islam's two holiest places.  

According to Western Resistance, one of the reasons that a large segment of the Saudi population engages in homosexual acts is that it's frankly easier to mingle with members of the same sex in the highly restrictive and oppressive regime--

According to Islamic law homosexuality is punishable by death. This punishment, however, is a poor deterrent. According to the article, most Saudi men become gay because it's easier to pick up a man than to find a woman. The situation is the same for young women. The article claims that Saudi Arabia's inhumane laws and dread morality police, which forbid dating between young men and women, in fact are a major factor pushing them towards homosexuality in their youth.
In his article, Queer Shiek, Being openly gay in Saudi Arabia used to be a death sentence-but times are changing, John R. Bradley describes the scene at a western-type mall in the city of Jeddah-

Gay Saudi men now cruise certain malls and supermarkets, openly making passes at each other, and one street in Jeddah is said to have the most traffic accidents in the city because it is the most popular place for Saudi drivers to pick up gay Filipinos, who strut their stuff on the sidewalk in tight jeans and cut-off t-shirts. (Filipinos are one of the larger groups of foreign workers in Saudi Arabia.) Meanwhile, gay and lesbian discos, gay-friendly coffee shops, and even gay oriented Internet chat rooms are now flourishing in some Saudi cities; in the chat rooms, gay and lesbian Saudis discuss the best places to meet people for one-night stands. "We talk about places that aren't gay cruising areas, because they're now in the minority," says one young gay Saudi, only half-jokingly.

These excerpts from the Atlantic Monthly article reflect some attitudes and realities about homosexuality in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia--

Talal, a Syrian youth who moved to Riyadh in 2000, calls the Saudi capital a ``gay heaven.''
``I used to have the feeling that I was the queerest in the country,'' said Yasser, a Saudi youth. ``But then I went to high school and discovered that there are others like me. Then I find out it's a whole society.''
Many gay expatriates say they feel more at home in the kingdom than in their native lands.
``Guys romp around and parade in front of you,'' said Marco, a 41-year old gay man from the Philippines living in Saudi Arabia. ``They will seduce you. It's up to you how many you want, every day.''
A magazine editor in Jeddah told me that many boys in Mecca, where he grew up have sexual relations with men, but they don't see themselves as gay.
``Homosexuality is considered to be a stage of life, particularly at youth.''
``[Saudi Arabia] is the land of sand and sodomites,'' said Tasmin, a female student who told me about the lesbian enclave at her school. ``The older men take advantage of the little boys.''
Dave, a gay American teacher living in Saudi Arabia, put it this way: ``Let's say there's a group of men sitting around a cafe. If a smooth faced boy walks by, they all stop and make approving comments. They're just noting: ``That's a hot little number.''

It seems that these homosexual men and women are risking their lives. An Islamic cleric quoted at Front Page Magazine writes about the sin of homosexuality, "This sin, the impact of which makes one's skin crawl, which  words cannot describe, is evidence of perverted instincts, total collapse of shame and honor, and extreme filthiness of character and soul... The heavens, the Earth and the mountains tremble from the impact of this sin. The angels shudder as they anticipate the punishment of Allah to descend upon the people who commit this indescribable sin."
Now we learn that on January 1, 2002, Saudi Arabian authorities publicly beheaded three gay men after Islamic religious courts in the southwestern city of Abha declared them guilty of "engaging in the extreme obscenity and ugly acts of homosexuality, marrying among themselves and molesting the young
For the wealthy in Saudi Arabia, though, it appears that homosexuality is overlooked by the authorities. John Bradley writes-
The upper crust of Saudi society is becoming more open as well. Carmen bin Laden, the sister-in-law of Osama bin Laden, recently published a book, in French, titled Inside the Kingdom, which is a look at the life of the idle Saudi rich. In the book, The New York Times reported this month, bin Laden tells stories of homosexual affairs among the kingdom's wealthy and idle women. And Saudi anthropologist Mai Yamani has shown that all-female discos catering to rich Saudi women are often covers for lesbian get-togethers. Saudi princes, meanwhile, have frequented the Jeddah disco, where they openly interact with club-goers.

Within the hospital setting very often we notice patients who lead double lives. A typical example is a patient we treated three weeks ago who arrived at the hospital with his male partner. He was dressed in a tight jeans and had a very female like mannerism.In fact, he was crying when he received his injection. They were both treated for a sexually transmitted infection. A week later the same patient arrived at the hospital with his wife. His behaviour with his wife though was quite appalling. He was screaming at her in public,verbally abusing her for always being ill and simply showing an authority over his wife who was quite oblivious to the double life her husband was leading. The medical staff and I couldn't believe that it was the same man we had encountered the previous week before.His dressing, personality as well as mannerism was completely different.He suddenly adopted a macho man like image in front of his wife. There are also stories of lesbian couples marrying gay couples. In this way the family respect is maintained by getting married but once the marriage process is completed, both couples in the relationship continue leading separate homosexual lives.

Is homosexuality the result of men-only and women-only interactions strictly controlled by the religious police? Or is caused by a repressive regime that controls every aspect of its citizens' lives? Or, are the Saudis really coming out of the closet?

Sources:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/05/the-kingdom-in-the-closet/305774/