Good evening,

First of all, I would like to welcome you to Beirut, and hope you enjoy your stay here as a tourist in a foreign country.

I would like to begin with a very brief introduction about Helem. Helem was founded in Beirut in 2004 and is one of the first above-ground organizations that advocates for the equality rights of people who identify with a sexual orientation or gender identity that doesn’t conform with the norms and traditions of society.

Immediate rejection of the Israeli embassy's support to the Festival!

From 17 to 25 September the 14th edition of Queer Lisboa will take place in the city of Lisbon. A Cinema Festival born from the LGBT (lesbian, bi, gay and transgender) movement and from its mobilization against the discriminations for sexual orientation or gender identity in Portugal, it is a venue worthy of our appreciation and solidarity. In its present edition, however, as it has been the case in the last three years, the Festival is about to receive both financial and institutional support from the Israeli embassy in Lisbon.

Below is a statement by 4 queer Arab organizations in Beirut, Jerusalem, and Haifa condemning the USSF‘s decision to allow zionist propaganda group Stand With Us to present at the forum:

SAY NO TO PINKWASHING AT THE USSF!

We, the undersigned queer Arab organizations, are appalled by the US Social Forum’s decision to allow Stand with Us to utilize the event as a platform to pinkwash Israel’s crimes in the region. Stand with Us is cynically manipulating the struggle of queer people in the Middle East through its workshop entitled “LGBTQI Liberation in the Middle East”.

Palestinian Queers for BDS

Call upon all Queer groups, organizations and individuals around the world to

Boycott the Apartheid State of Israel.

June 27th 2010

Call for Action: Tell IGLTA that Apartheid Israel is not for LGBT Leisure Tourism!

September 8th 2009

ISSUED BY:
Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, Toronto
Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Queer BDS activists from Israel

he Advocate- Haneen Maikey, Jason Ritchie

On January 28, little more than a week after Israel concluded its brutal military campaign against the Gaza Strip, James Kirchick published the latest installment (www.advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid71844.asp) in his growing corpus of articles about tolerant, gay-friendly Israel and homophobic, "Islamofascist" Palestine. Although Kirchick has published essentially the same article under different titles -- "Palestine and Gay Rights" (www.advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid33587.asp) and "Palestinian Anti-Gay Atrocities Need Attention" (www.innewsweekly.com/innews/?class_code=Op&article_code=783) -- and although he regurgitates the same flimsy, unsupported arguments in all of these articles, we do not write to question his intellectual prowess or journalistic qualifications. In fact, Kirchick’s diatribe against Palestinians and the "radical" gay activists who support them would not warrant a response if it did not, in our view, represent something much bigger and more dangerous.

by Michael K. Lavers
National News Editor
Wednesday Apr 1, 2009

Gay Lebanese activist Georges Azzi never thought he would see the day a government official or entity would publicly call for the decriminalization of homosexuality. Yet the Lebanese Ministry of Health did just that late last year.

"Everything is possible," Azzi told EDGE in a recent interview. "If it’s possible in Lebanon, its possible anywhere."