Introduction

LGBTQ Projects

These projects include activities that struggle for equal citizenship rights and combat discrimination of persons with non-conforming sexualities and gender identities

Homosexuality and other non-conforming sexual identities have always existed in the Arab World. Even though heterosexuality is still the only recognized and acknowledged sexual identity, the history of the region is filled with homo-erotic art and poetry, same-sex relations and subversive patterns of behavior. It is true to say that non-heterosexual persons suffer from homophobia, discrimination, threats and humiliation. Yet in recent years, for example in Lebanon, there has been a significant rise in movements aiming at granting more visibility and rights to those marginalized groups.

Publications

Handbook

Homosexuality, Bisexuality: Myths and Realities

Homosexuality is a subject that induced the persecution of a lot of individuals and the shed of their blood.

The situation in Lebanon is not as dangerous as in other countries in the Arab world for those individuals whose sexual orientation does not comply with that of the majority, but it is not less serious. Threats of death, humiliations, blackmails, attacks, marginalization, discriminations, rejections, depressions, suicide attempts, shame, guilt, emotional life ruined, isolation, are in great majority the load of the openly or clandestinely homosexual persons living in homophobic  societies.

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Book

Bareed Mista3jil

- MEEM launched in 2009 the book “Bareed Mista3jil”: a collection of 40 true stories from voices in Lebanon that we seldom hear. Their common thread is that they are all from persons of non-conforming sexualities and gender identities, the life of queer women and transgender in Lebanon.

Published by MEEM and with the support of the Heinrich Boll Foundation-Middle East Office

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Recommended Links

KAYANI is an independent media project designed and implemented by Syrian activists. It aims at contributing to the creation of a new Syrian civil society through establishing an independent platform for young voices of Syria who use audio-visual media to express their point of views. The main concern of the project is to portray the human-interest stories behind the Syrian uprising through artistic means.

Visit KAYANI's website here
Watch the project's short documentaries "A Tribute to Mehsal Temo" and "Yabroud declares Assad toppled" here

Dawlaty is an initiative launched by young Syrian activists and aiming at promoting the participation and engagement in the state building process in Syria through the development of creative tools like animation films, brochures, posters, graffiti... all materials developed use the Syrian dialect to expand the scope of the project's reach. more   
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