Westhampton, MA - August 5, 2009
Richard Ammon - GlobalGayz.com

I just finished reading (again) the lead article in the Sunday New York Times (August 2, 2009) travel section about Gay Beirut (Lebanon) entitled “Provincetown of the Middle East”.

My reaction is mixed. It’s affirming to see the nation’s leading ‘paper of record’ giving so much ink to the ‘homosexual lifestyle’. It wasn’t always so, even as recently as a decade ago. Today, the Times even prints announcements for same-gender marriages and commitment ceremonies.

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 Cary Alan Johnson

Despite the global recession, the U.S. is promoting and aggressively selling a costly product overseas: homophobia. Uganda, one of America's closest partners in Africa, is currently home to vicious and violent attacks on its citizens based solely on their sexual orientation and gender identity. The high cost in terms of individual privacy and freedom of expression is mounting daily. Regrettably, much of the inspiration and call for these attacks is coming directly from these shores.

The Lebanese society, still very much influenced by religion and old mores, considers homosexuality as a deviation from normal. Stories about gays and lesbians battling for their rights and facing great danger are always reported in the local and international press.

The printed press