"'cross-dressing tourists' in Dibai" various #'s
(Some news reports now say the number is 40 and that most of the people arrested were immediately deported. Makes me wonder they have poice at the airport right? So why allow us to enter the country if that's how they feel?)
This would turn up here eventually in some form. So let me just get in front of the story.
According to CNN
Quote:
Moral crackdown in Dubai
Dubai police crack down on immoral behavior of Westerners in the conservative Muslim state. CNN's Wilf Dinnick reports.
Quote:
17 'cross-dressing tourists' held in Dubai
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Police in the Gulf tourist hub of Dubai say they've detained 17 foreigners for allegedly displaying homosexual behavior in the city's shopping malls and other public places.
Police spokesman Zuhair Horoun says all the suspects are men who were either visiting or working in Dubai. He says they were detained Wednesday but did not elaborate or give details about their behavior.
But the Dubai-based Gulf News reported Thursday that police detained "40 cross-dressing tourists."
The paper quotes Dubai's police chief as saying the arrests are part of a campaign against "transvestites."
Outward homosexual behavior is banned in the United Arab Emirates. Despite its Western outlook, Dubai is a conservative Muslim city-state and, like much of the Arab world, remains largely hostile to homosexuality.
I will reserve judgment on this story until I know more details. It could be the UAE is in the wrong. I mean if those girls were just standing around acting normal that's one thing. Or it could be that those girls were trying to solicit either sex or business right there in the mall. Either of which would be unacceptable in a country like the UAE where even the genetic females cannot do that.... and if those girls were on the stroll well that's not legal here either.
Since they are presumably not Muslims they will not be likely not be subject to Sharia law. Which can be good and bad for the accused. The actual crime in sharia is to have anal sex. To prove a crime in Sharia needs four male Muslim eye witnesses (women count for 1/2 supposedly women might bend the truth out of emotion). Unless their accusers have that they would go free.
I suppose there are some who will write that such restrictions are wrong and the UAE should change. Well by what standard are we to judge? Are the barbarities of our society any more genteel than those of the UAE? Are it's niceties any less attractive than ours? The lesson for a western GLBT person should be as follows.
1.) If you cannot do as the Muslims do when it comes to your sexuality then stay out of their countries. They have GLBT communities in their countries they just act differently than us.
2.)If you must go there then be sensitive to their culture, it will not change just because of a US passport. Be discrete, not closeted or ashamed, just discrete. Make sure to keep any and all sex you have behind closed doors. Do not try to hook up at random only speak of sex with people you know, trust, and are confident will not turn on you.
3.)Know your rights and how to contact your countries embassy. They can at least help you find a decent attorney. Any decent scholar will tell you exactly what I have said about the evidence needed to convict you. If all your sex is behind closed doors (where it should be anyway), even if you are on camera, then you should have nothing to fear.
One thing that is notable to me is that I have seen and heard many times of foreign gay males and trans gender females getting into trouble there and almost never of natives of the UAE. LGBT people provably exist there natively. They likely follow the above guidelines. They are like my cousin who lives in NYC ...or.... say... the way your average glbt republican does things. They are gay and people around them know it they just don't discuss it. That is how you have to play it over there if you are gay.
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If you are transsexual and pre-op or non-op. Islamic law only cares about sexuality and not gender presentation. (I can produce you tube video's up the wazoo to back this up) Transwomen can move and act as freely over there as we do over here. However just like basically everyone else GLB or straight you have to check any sexual exhibitionism at the door when you leave your hotel or home. ( See above. )
I now expect to be bombarded with the usual cries of how crazy I am for writing anything but how horrible all dirty ol Muslims are and how we should all be killed. OR that we should all just convert to secular humanism. Or any number of slanderous lies or phobic things that would not be tolerated, even here about any other group... To which I say.... whatever. :sigh:
All I know is that when I go to a high hill in the park across the street from my apartment some Fridays, cry out the Athan inviting any Muslims in earshot to pray with me, and hearing it echoed by brothers and sisters in the distance, that feels better than anything. (I know they hear because when I go to the catfish place and order the guy behind the counter mentioned this and gave me a free coke. He says and I agree one has to be brave to be Muslim in the USA.)
Now I am going to go say the early morning prayer.
As sallam ul-lakium