Ghassan Makarem - Homosexuality Conference, Beirut - مؤتمر عن المثلية في بيروت

Ghassan Makarem's presentation

Source: The American University of Beirut's (AUB) Freethought society
Event: "Homosexuality: dispelling the myths, presenting the facts"
Location: Bathish Auditorium, AUB
Date: April 28 2009
Voice: Ghassan Makarem

Source of photos:
Raynbow Media Monitor
http://www.cafepress.com/raynbow/890619

Source of text:
MEEM group - Live blogging
http://meemgroup.blogspot.com/2009/04/live-blogging-from-aubs-dispelling.html

"Homosexuality in Lebanon:
-myth that there is tolerance
-myth that society is too conservative to accept homosexual acts/identity

in Helem, we noticed that there are different ways in looking at homosexuality. There is a relation with the education, the setting (urban: more likely to have a homosexual lifestyle). We do not know how people percieve homosexuality. There hasnt been any studies. Gays and Lesbians in Lebanon have it better here? Not entirely true. We have obstacles: article 534 criminalizes unnatural sexual intercourse. In some places used exclusively against gay men, less about gay women. At the end of 2002, they wanted to include lesbians in the penal code. It was stopped by a coalition of NGOs.Scientific evidence comes from Europe and the United States and they give false impressions. From the beginning at Helem, we made a decision that we are concerned with civic laws, we are not looking to reform any religion. We try not to deal with religious issues, but any reform should focus on civil law.

We look at how the state looks at homosexuals and whether there is any institutional discrimination against homosexuals. We have been working with various organizations in Lebanon, even though this article exists, Helem is in a coalition with the Ministry of Health and works with the Ministry of Public Affairs. We also work with the police on how gays and lesbians are treated."

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Ghassan
• Makarem
• Homosexuality
• Conference
• gay
• lesbian
• bisexual
• LGBT
• homosexual
• homophobia
• lebanon
• beirut
• arab
• AUBمثلي
• مثلية
• بيروت
• لبنان
• مؤتمر

[razanghazzawi]

Ghassan rocks!

[zeerome]

Keep up the good work... Well done Ghassan...It is just the audio is not that great...

[carabinieri210]

GR8!!!! there should more of this stuff going around other universities as well! hopefully some education will awake those who are ignorant!

[patbejjani]

FAGGOTS MUST BE ERADICATED!

[MrSweetlife92]

Gr8 vid ! Let the world know how liberal a middle eastern country can be, and allow people to be more aware that homos arent a 'disease' in society