Opening the
Arab closet

Lebanon-based queer rights group Helem fights for visibility and acceptance in an unwelcoming community

by ANDREA ZANIN

“Just mentioning a name in connection with homosexuality can have consequences on family members’ jobs and security,” explains Rémy, coordinator of Lebanese gay group Helem, a non-profit organization working for the advancement of queer rights, health and culture in Lebanon and in the Arab diaspora. “The Arabic community is very closed and news moves very fast from one person to another, so we never use our family names in the press.”

The danger of public visibility is just one of the many challenges faced by Helem members. The group was founded in Beirut, Lebanon, in 2000, as an outgrowth of an online chat forum. “In the late ’90s someone suggested they meet, and it was a difficult decision to take,” Rémy says. “It wasn’t safe to trust anyone.”

International reach

Nonetheless, the group started convening regularly, and came up with a mission, goals and structures. “Members from Lebanon moved out and started to find local communities elsewhere to start chapters,” Rémy says. Sister groups were born in Paris, Sydney, San Francisco and Ottawa, as well as in our city—with Montreal’s being one of the most active, with around 35 members and a mailing list reaching over 1,000 people.

“It’s not a huge organization but we do huge work,” Rémy says. “At first the chapters’ missions were to do fundraising since it wasn’t possible in Lebanon because we’d have needed to be visible. When we realized in the other chapters that the local communities needed help and support, we changed our mission to include that as well.”

In early 2004, Helem’s then-coordinator moved to Montreal for the express purpose of registering the group as a legal entity—impossible in Lebanon at the time. “We chose Montreal because Canada is one of the most open countries.”

Since then, after two rejections, the group managed to successfully register in its home country in a rather roundabout way—by taking advantage of an unstable government situation in February 2005.

“Lebanese law says that if you present your papers and you don’t have an answer within three months, you become legal by default. So we timed the request because we knew there was no government to work on the papers.”

Unnatural crimes

Helem’s primary mission is to change Article 534 of the Lebanese penal code, which criminalizes all sexual acts that are “against nature.”

“It’s not specific to gays, but because it is wide, it’s used against homosexuals in every way possible,” Rémy says. “To change the law, we need to change the way people see us and people’s mentalities. People need to be convinced. We know that it will take many years, but it’s been done elsewhere and we’re confident we’re on the right track.”

Despite needing to operate underground in Lebanon, Helem has founded the Arab world’s first gay and lesbian community centre there, which Rémy says is “open to anyone who knows it exists.”

The Montreal chapter’s mission includes education work within its membership base as well as within the community—queer and straight, Arab and otherwise. “In the Arab world being gay is still perceived as a disease, and one that came from Western countries,” he says. “A lot of people say we don’t have gays at all. That opinion is still strong and founded in an old way of thinking, so we have a lot of work to do.”

In the last year, the group has also successfully intervened in a gay Lebanese man’s refugee case. “He is now free and in Montreal and is waiting for his permanent residency papers.” They also helped found the Multimondo Coalition, whose mission is to give a more powerful voice to all of Montreal’s queer ethnocultural groups.

Bridges from Beirut

Currently, Helem is the only visible queer group in the Middle East. According to Rémy, “It’s common knowledge that change in the Arab world needs to start in Lebanon, because it’s perceived as one of the most open countries and one of the most Westernized. Once our work is done in Lebanon—if I can ever say that—there is a will to try to help other countries achieve the same goal.”

Helem was the subject of a Lebanese police investigation in 2005, which ended in a closed case—fortunately, since the consequences of queer visibility can be serious. Rémy’s list of things that need to change includes “crimes of honour,” which are still acceptable in some areas, “which means you can kill someone who has done something against the honour of the family, even if it’s your kid or your brother or sister.” This effectively makes anti-gay violence acceptable.

Legal consequences of being gay may include arrest and up to one year of imprisonment, “with everything that means: poor treatment, rape, physical violence, emotional violence.” In other Arab countries the potential consequences for being gay can be even worse. “Just last summer, a few days before Pride week here, two young gay men were hanged in Iran.”

This will be Helem’s third year in the Divers/Cité parade, which has a distinctly political mission for the group. This year’s theme is Mosaïque, to include people of all Arab origins and countries.

“Mainly, the parade is a way to be visible to the Arab gays who don’t know that we can help them or support them,” Rémy says. The group will also be tabling at the Community Fair, August 5 and 6, and providing free belly-dancing lessons to anyone who wants to learn.

The group’s biggest blitz, though, is their Yalla Barra fundraising party, which aims to be “an inclusive celebration of difference,” with Middle Eastern rhythms and drag performances. “It’s for the members and the Arab gay community to have some fun, to have a positive experience and forget about all the stress and problems we may have,” Rémy says.

Regardless of cultural origin, all are welcome to celebrate—and be as visible as they please.

Yalla Barra takes place at Clubmix Inferno (1592 Ste-Catherine E.) on Thursday, August 3, 9:30 p.m., $15. Check http://montreal.helem.net for information about Helem and all its Divers/Cité events