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4.10.03
GayMiddleEast.com News
On 7 August 2003 a
very interesting and comprehensive article appeared on, "AL BAWABA"
(one of the most comprehensive websites for middle east news). This
article, entitled "Summer Lovin'," delved into the awakening of the
G.L.B.T. communities throughout the middle east via the internet and
gave extensive mention to our work at GayMiddleEast.com towards this
coming out process.
The AL BAWABA
article gave special mention to a letter that came in from a gay man
in Syria that said, "I think the gays in the middle east sure need
protection." They also mentioned the anti-gay stance of Beirut's
"Dunkin Donut's."
Lately
GayMiddleEast.com received complaints that the link we put on our
site to the AL BAWABA article is not operating. GayMiddleEast.com
checked, and found that indeed the link was no longer working. We
checked the AL BAWABA site, and found that all of the articles of 7
August 2003 were still on line except the one about G.L.B.T.
developments in the middle east.
GayMiddleEast.com
News staff contacted AL BAWABA for an explanation of why the G.L.B.T.
related article was removed.
The reply we
received is as follows: "The article was taken down because we
did receive a lot of complaints from people about it. AL BAWABA is
doing its utmost to be on the cutting edge of news reported by
introducing untouched issues and stories to the main stream
audience. Unfortunately, and due to the conservative opinions in
this part of the world, not all stories are received in the way we
would like them to be. With the "Summer Lovin'" article, we did
received many complaints from several and varying parties. After
much fanfare, we decided to just drop the article."
GME's question to
them as to whether in light of pressure from certain people other
articles regarding G.L.B.T. developments will be put up on the site
was left unanswered.
S.A. Getenio,
manager of GayMiddleEast.com says the following, "First
of all, we at GayMiddleEast.com want to commend our colleagues at AL
BAWABA for their courageous steps in putting of this article dealing
with such a controversial subject in the first place. It's not
everyday that such a respected website here in the middle east dares
to deal with subjects like this.
However, we must
express our extreme disappointment that AL BAWABA capitulated to the
pressures put upon them by fundamentalist conservative closed minded
people that would like us to believe that there are no G.L.B.T.
people in the middle east.
We believe that
true journalism has the role of a public educator and it is our
obligation to report the news in a true and objective manner. We
shall not bow to pressures by one interest group or another that
would have us distort reality.”
GayMiddleEast.com
hope that the management of AL BAWABA will put the article back into
the archives of their site, and in the future will continue to post
articles on the G.L.B.T. communities that are slowly but surely
coming out of their closets here in the middle east. We at
GayMiddleEast.com will be glad to cooperate with AL BAWABA and
discuss various news issues that are relevant to the G.L.B.T. middle
east communities.
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