By Andrew Heavens
KHARTOUM (Reuters) -
When Ali started blogging that he was
Sudanese and gay, he did not realize he was joining a band of
African and Middle Eastern gays and lesbians who, in the face
of hostility and repression, have come out online.
But within days the messages started coming in to
black-gay-arab.blogspot.
"Keep up the good work," wrote Dubai-based Weblogger 'Gay
by nature'. "Be proud and blog the way you like," wrote
Kuwait's gayboyweekly. Close behind came comments, posts and
links purporting to be from almost half the countries in the
Arab League, including Egypt, Algeria, Bahrain and Morocco.
Ali, who lists his home town as Khartoum but lives in
Qatar, had plugged into a small, self-supporting network of
people who have launched Web sites about their sexuality, while
keeping their full identity secret. Caution is crucial -
homosexual acts are illegal in most countries in Africa and the
Middle East, with penalties ranging from long-term imprisonment
to execution.
"The whole idea started as a diary. I wanted to write
what's on my mind and mainly about homosexuality," he told
Reuters in an e-mail. "To tell you the truth, I didn't expect
this much response."
In the current climate, bloggers say they are achieving a
lot just by stating their nationality and sexual orientation.
"If you haven't heard or seen any gays in Sudan then allow
me to tell you 'You Don't live In The Real World then,"' Ali
wrote in a message to other Sudanese bloggers. "I'm Sudanese
and Proud Gay Also."
His feelings were echoed in a mini-manifesto at the start
of the blog "Rants and raves of a Kenyan gay man" that stated:
"The Kenyan gay man is a myth and you may never meet one in
your lifetime. However, I and many others like me do exist;
just not openly. This blog was created to allow access to the
psyche of me, who represents the thousands of us who are
unrepresented."
NEWS AND ABUSE
That limited form of coming out has earned the bloggers
abuse or criticism via their blogs' comment pages or e-mails.
"Faggot queen," wrote a commentator called 'blake' on
Kenya's 'Rants and raves'. "I will put my loathing for you
faggots aside momentarily, due to the suffering caused by the
political situation," referring to the country's post-election
violence.
Some are more measured: "The fact that you are a gay
Sudanese and proudly posting about it in itself is just not
natural," a reader called 'sudani' posted on Ali's blog.
Others have turned their blogs into news outlets, focusing
on reports of persecution in their region and beyond.
The blog GayUganda reported on the arrests of gay men in
Senegal in February. A month earlier, Blackgayarab posted video
footage of alleged police harassment in Iraq.
Kenya's "Rants and Raves" reported that gay people were
targets in the country's election violence, while blogger
Gukira focused on claims that boys had been raped during riots.
Afriboy organized an auction of his erotic art to raise funds
"to help my community in Kenya."
There was also widespread debate on the comments made by
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last September about
homosexuals in his country.
The total number of gay bloggers in the region is still
relatively small, say the few Web sites that monitor the scene.
"It is the rare soul who is willing to go up against such
blind and violent ignorance and advocate for gay rights and
respect," said Richard Ammon of GlobalGayz which tracks gay
news and Web sites throughout the world.
"There are a number of people from the community who are
blogging both from Africa and the diaspora but it is still
quite sporadic," said Nigerian blogger Sokari Ekine who keeps a
directory of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender blogs on
her own Web site Black Looks.
WAYS TO MEET
The overall coverage may be erratic, but pockets of gay
blogging activity are starting to emerge.
There are blogs bridging the Arabic-speaking world from
Morocco in the west to the United Arab Emirates in the east.
There is a self-sustaining circle of gay bloggers in Kenya and
Uganda together with a handful of sites put up by gay
Nigerians.
And then there is South Africa, where the constitutional
recognition of gay rights has encouraged many bloggers to come
wholly into the open.
"I don't preserve my anonymity at all. I am embracing our
constitution which gives us the right to freedom of speech ...
There is nothing wrong that I am doing," said Matuba Mahlatjie
of the blog My Haven.
Beyond the blogging scene, the Internet's chat rooms and
community sites have also become one of the safest ways for gay
Africans and Arabs to meet, away from the gaze of a hostile
society.
"That is what I did at first, I mean, I looked around for
others until I found others," said Gug, the writer behind the
blog GayUganda.
"Oh yes, I do love the Internet, and I guess it is a tool
that has made us gay Ugandans and Africans get out of our
villages and realize that the parish priest's homophobia is not
universal opinion. Surprise, surprise!"
(Editing by Andrew Dobbie and Sara Ledwith)
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