“Gay Paradise – kind of”. Les espaces de l’homosexualité masculine à Beyrouth.

Abstract

In Beirut, bars and nightclubs which welcome gay people are increasing and tend to be an integral part of everyday nightscape, to the point that they became a tourist attraction. However, homosexual intercourse is still punishable by law and socially condemned. By studying places of self-expression and sociability or cruising areas of gay people in Beirut, the article questions the constitution of a gay Lebanese identity and the creation of a homosexual public within the urban public space. To this end, the work on spaces of nightlife and gay cruising areas is attempting to consider the links between local norms and dominant global logics of flows of sexual identities. Owing to the place assigned to homosexual locations in Beirut, between accessibility, dissimulation and enclosure, the study also examines the relationship to space and to their spaces, in terms of visibility or invisibility of the stigma.

Keywords

• identity
• public space
• Beirut
• homosexuality
• stigma
• visibility