"My sexuality is my own sexuality. It doesnt belong to anybody. Not to my government, not to my brother, my sister, my family. No one."Ahraf Zanati is now safe in Vancouver, but two years ago he was one of 52 men arrested, tortured and imprisoned in Cairo for being on board a Nile riverboat disco patronized by gay and bisexual males.
Homosexuality is not illegal in Egypt (as it still is in some U.S. jurisdictions) but these men were tried for crimes of debauchery and offence to religion nevertheless. Significantly, foreigners were merely told to leave when police boarded the boat. I was aboard the Queen Boat myself years ago, and so, on account of my timing if not my birth, I suppose I may have been lucky to escape - with my debauchery and religious offence completely intact.
Much of the world has not been so fortunate. Millions are still in great peril for their sexuality, and a new documentary, "Dangerous Living: Coming Out in the Developing World," examines the dangers and rare triumphs for queers of all kinds in the "Global South."
The film will be shown next Saturday at 3:30 at NYU's Cantor Film Center (36 E 8th St. at University Place) as part of the New Festival.
Mubarak Dahir offers a good account of queer life in Cairo today.
And for perhaps the latest on a story which will have not end (because it has political utility), see this Gay City News story.