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News: Journalist writes piece on using hookup apps in Sharia Qatar
Banned
Member Since: 8/7/2015
Posts: 4,477
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Journalist writes piece on using hookup apps in Sharia Qatar
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I travel a lot, and in addition to talking to bookstore clerks about who the big local writers are, seeing what the latest architecture looks like, and trying out cool new boozes, talking to and having sex with the locals is one of the things I like most about travel.
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But maybe Qatar was different. It was the first stridently religious Muslim country I'd ever tried any of the apps or sites in. I'd heard the emirate, still far more traditional than its frantically Westernizing UAE cousins to the south, was slowly liberalizing on the road to its 2022 World Cup. Women with off-the-shoulder dresses were no longer being hissed at in the streets, for instance. But I'd also heard there were plans afoot to somehow identify gays at the border, and gay publications, as well as soon-to-be-ex FIFA chief Sepp Blatter were already warning football fans about maybe not kissing your boyfriend after a big goal.
I'd looked into the laws about such things, as I always do before traveling to a new place. In Qatar, the maximum penalty for same-sex sexual activity (or any extramarital monkey business between [anyone of any sexuality]) is death. I could see how that could put a damper on the hook-up scene.
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despite the pall of death, I logged in, and within about a minute, I started hearing those familiar little moist-sounding electronic pops.
"Hey"
"Hey"
"Hey"
"Hi"
"Hey"
"Hey"
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This is one of the many powers of travel. A place never looks the same on the ground as it does from the height of Google Earth or the arm's length of even a responsible news report. This emirate is as against men with other men's penises in them as they are against calling their Prophet a naughty name. But, look at this glowing screen. Look at those hopeful, horny, possibly brave, mostly young men, erupting out of this tiny desert nation with Goldblumian inevitability. Life will find a way, at least if by life, you mean semen.
I had meetings and lunches and suppers and drinks, but amid those, in the early mornings, late nights, and occasionally stolen hours in between when the thing I was doing happened to be in the lobby of my own hotel, I had some sex, and learned a thing or two about the religious Muslim world in the process.
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There was the bodybuilder who lived with his boyfriend, whom he considered his husband, or the guy with the sprung, rabbit-like body, all nervous energy, who got impatient with my leisurely approach to ****ing him, and flipped me in what must have been a practiced wrestling move and got most of the way into me—which I'm fine with but dude, roll on a condom—before I kicked him over and restored order. He worked for a big Qatari corporation. Our conversation was much like it has been in other hotel rooms in other cities, talking about home, other trips, other sex. I asked him if it was tough, having sex with guys here with the laws so strict and scary. He laughed a laugh I've grown accustomed to on the road, the oh-you-stupid-callow-foreigner laugh. No, he said, it wasn't tough. There's a quotation inscribed in the entrance hall of Doha's grand Museum of Islamic Art from the 13th-century historian Rawandi: "He should be aware of his enemies, like a chess player who, while observing his own move, also watches over his opponent's." These guys seem to have gotten the hang of it.
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I asked another quiet, serious guy, about whether there was any way to meet people in Doha offline. He said there was a hotel bar he went to. Qataris aren't officially allowed in hotel bars, but it turns out that if you're not wearing your thobe, you aren't assumed to be Qatari. I went to the bar later to see for myself. It certainly wasn't a gay bar, but there were single, young, brown men who ordered drinks they didn't drink and stood at the bar making the same kind of anxious, hungry, hesitant eye contact I've read about in novels and memoirs that describe the North American scene five and six decades ago.
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On my last night in town, I took a walk through the souk. ... I'd wandered around for about ten minutes when a tall, broad, beautiful man fell into stride beside me and asked where I was from. I told him, and angled into a gift store. He followed.... Four or five minutes larer, he led me into an alleyway, grabbed my crotch, and asked if I had a place where I could **** him. We walked around a little more while I figured out whether this was a good idea. Deciding it totally was, we headed to my hotel. I asked him to wait outside while I made sure it was OK that he came in. A last-minute twinge made me want to check something. So I got to my lobby, hooked up to the wifi, and plugged the words Doha, souk, gay, and police into Google.
The first three results told me that police occasionally pick up foreign workers caught in compromising same-sex situations and, in exchange for not arresting and deporting them, turn them into bait. The rights of foreign workers are not highly developed in Qatar, and this seemed to fall right into line with other stories of passport and wage withholding. I'd noticed my guy texting a few times as we walked, and when I came out of the hotel, he was texting some more. I told him I'd changed my mind, and he left.
...
It's not a happy and healthy gay-for-all, but it's not being thrown off tall buildings either, and it's not the way I'd gotten used to thinking about life in the religious Islamic world. The news gives us triumphs and disasters; everyday life, by definition, isn't news. But for what it's worth, everyday life for a man-****ing man in Qatar, citizen and guest-worker alike, seems un-dramatic, un-frightening, operating on pretty much the same principles as it does anywhere else in the world with internet connections and selfies.
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really interesting article, i'd love to hear what our atrl inhabitants of the area have to say 
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Member Since: 3/2/2014
Posts: 5,993
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Life will find a way, at least if by life, you mean semen.
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Member Since: 4/14/2011
Posts: 48,397
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This is so interesting. Homosexuality is global!
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Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 9,799
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This man is literally being paid to be a ho. I looked at his pic on Twitter though...he looks like someone who would have the pig emoji in their grindr profile and be into eating unwashed buttholes.
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Member Since: 4/6/2014
Posts: 9,220
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Member Since: 3/25/2011
Posts: 10,337
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I asked him if it was tough, having sex with guys here with the laws so strict and scary. He laughed a laugh I've grown accustomed to on the road, the oh-you-stupid-callow-foreigner laugh. No, he said, it wasn't tough. There's a quotation inscribed in the entrance hall of Doha's grand Museum of Islamic Art from the 13th-century historian Rawandi: "He should be aware of his enemies, like a chess player who, while observing his own move, also watches over his opponent's." These guys seem to have gotten the hang of it.
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This makes me sad
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Banned
Member Since: 8/7/2015
Posts: 4,477
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Quote:
Originally posted by Lights and Waves
This man is literally being paid to be a ho. I looked at his pic on Twitter though...he looks like someone who would have the pig emoji in their grindr profile and be into eating unwashed buttholes.
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kljxgsldhkhgfj;s noooooo 
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Member Since: 4/14/2011
Posts: 48,397
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Omg I'm reading the suggested articles at the bottom and what a mess 
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Member Since: 1/7/2010
Posts: 4,967
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Quote:
Originally posted by Lights and Waves
This man is literally being paid to be a ho. I looked at his pic on Twitter though...he looks like someone who would have the pig emoji in their grindr profile and be into eating unwashed buttholes.
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Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 11,186
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QatariMonster his impact  .
xox
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Member Since: 5/21/2012
Posts: 13,571
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I asked him if it was tough, having sex with guys here with the laws so strict and scary. He laughed a laugh I've grown accustomed to on the road, the oh-you-stupid-callow-foreigner laugh.
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Basically what any GCC ATRL-er ( exception being QatariMonster & Luke. ) would tell you.
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Member Since: 9/1/2013
Posts: 18,649
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After another five minutes, he grabbed my little finger with his and squeezed. Four or five minutes after that, he led me into an alleyway, grabbed my crotch, and asked if I had a place where I could **** him.
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some people need to chill.
also, did he really think hooking up was worth potentially being tortured?! like...i don't understand people that are like that at all. :I
i'm not a very sexual person, so this kind of attitude makes no sense to me. but it is an interesting look at how things are there. i mean, i knew those places aren't the barbaric hellholes some people think of them as, but this is more than i imagined.
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Member Since: 5/21/2012
Posts: 13,571
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Originally posted by accelgors
some people need to chill.
also, did he really think hooking up was worth potentially being tortured?! like...i don't understand people that are like that at all. :I
i'm not a very sexual person, so this kind of attitude makes no sense to me. but it is an interesting look at how things are there. i mean, i knew those places aren't the barbaric hellholes some people think of them as, but this is more than i imagined.
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One thing is for sure, the man couldn't be police or else he himself will be tired for assaulting the guy and/or engaging in same sex actions.
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ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 8,324
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Member Since: 4/6/2011
Posts: 31,849
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They still have no rights.  just because you can live in private without being harassed doesn't mean its okay. of course I understand that is how they have to live due to the cultural aspects there but its still unfair for them to have to live secretly like that.
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ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 8,324
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Originally posted by Reza
They still have no rights. just because you can live in private without being harassed doesn't mean its okay. of course I understand that is how they have to live due to the cultural aspects there but its still unfair for them to have to live secretly like that. |
They are some openly gays that have been out for years and no one did anything to them, yes it's weird but it happens a lot
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ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 8,324
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He followed.... Four or five minutes larer, he led me into an alleyway, grabbed my crotch, and asked if I had a place where I could **** him.
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Wait that might be me
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Member Since: 6/20/2012
Posts: 8,593
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I'm from Jordan and most of that doesn't really apply here. It's allowed by law to engage in same-sex activities, there are gay cafés, gay people holding hands in westernized areas of Amman, a street packed with members of LGBTQ+ called "Rainbow St.", and no one can get you arrested for anything. A very rare time an arrest happened was at a gay party because neighbors were complaining about "disturbance of public peace."
I don't speak for any other Arab country, though. Jordan is more liberal and allied with the US/Europe, so..
Edit: you can also find sex partners very easily. Just go on Grindr and a flock of horny Arab men will spam you. 
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Member Since: 5/21/2012
Posts: 13,571
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Quote:
Originally posted by heckinglovato
I'm from Jordan and most of that doesn't really apply here. It's allowed by law to engage in same-sex activities, there are gay cafés, gay people holding hands in westernized areas of Amman, a street packed with members of LGBTQ+ called "Rainbow St.", and no one can get you arrested for anything. A very rare time an arrest happened was at a gay party because neighbors were complaining about "disturbance of public peace."
I don't speak for any other Arab country, though. Jordan is more liberal and allied with the US/Europe, so..
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wow how relevant and totally about Qatar like do you want a congrats or something?
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ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 8,324
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Originally posted by PromKing
wow how relevant and totally about Qatar like do you want a congrats or something?
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This. 
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