Hagrid is in the House!

Here's a piece of my past -- a photo I had taken on June 8, 1997, in order to apply for a visa to visit India as a Semester at Sea student.

A Comparative Report on Gay Subcultures in Countries Visited on the Fall 1997 SAS Voyage
CORE Report by Kevyn Jacobs
December 12, 1997

W hat follows is the final report I prepared for Global Perspectives: World Geography, a class I took on my voyage. Nicknamed CORE, because everybody had to take it, and because it met 7 days a week, the class focused on looking at the world as a system, and giving an overview of what life was like in each of the places we visited.

My final project for the course was to prepare a comparative report on some aspect of life in at least three of the countries that we visited. Overachiever that I am, I compiled information on all ten countries. I received an A+ on the paper, and a note from the course's instructor that praised it as being one of the best on the voyage.

DESCRIPTION

For my CORE comparative report, I have chosen to examine the status of gay men and gay subcultures in many of the countries we have visited in the course of the fall '97 SAS voyage.

My intention in preparing this report is to provide a comparison on the kinds of lives led by gay men in each of the countries - how they are similar and how they are different - and also to learn how the widely varied cultures we have visited deal with the issue of male homosexuality.

It is my thesis that neither condemnation nor acceptance of male homosexuality are universal, and that gay subcultures, and the lives of gay men in those subcultures, reflect the cultural values of the larger cultures in which they exist.

METHODOLOGY

My primary method of gathering data for this report was interviewing gay men in the ports we visited. I visited gay bars, bathhouses, political groups and community centers for the purpose of finding interview subjects. I also established contact with gay men in several countries over the Internet before the voyage began for the purpose of setting up interviews. In a few isolated instances, I was also able, purely by chance, to meet gay men outside of the confines of gay subcultural settings of bars, etc.

Additional research information came from two published sources: The 1997 Spartacus Guide, a comprehensive guidebook to worldwide gay establishments, which also contains detailed information on the legal status of gays in every country in the world, and At Home in a World of Strangers: Towards a Comparison of Gay Urban Cultures, a research project proposal from the Netherlands, available on the WWW, which details gay urban life in two of the countries we have visited.

A certain amount of information also comes from my own personal observations of behaviors in t he countries we have visited, and from observations made by fellow SAS participants.

I realize that this is in no way a comprehensive study of the subject - a complete study would take volumes and years of research. Indeed, the new field of queer studies is just beginning to analyze this kind of information. It could very well be that further, more detailed research would prove my findings wrong, and that some of the things I observed were isolated examples instead of representative.

In addition to the lack of comprehensive research, another shortcoming of my work is the fact that I had only a limited number of subjects to interview, and that these subjects may not be representative. Because my subjects were mostly self-identified gay men, and often of the type who hang out in gay establishments or have a presence on the Internet, I can not write with any confidence about the lives of men who do not frequent these places, or about closeted gay men, or about bisexual men. My data is necessarily weighted towards those elements of gay subculture that are more public and accessible to outsiders.

Language may also have played a factor in my understanding of the gay subcultures I studied, since as an English speaker, I may have misunderstood some of the meanings or nuances of what was being told to me by men who were not native English speakers.

One final note, about my own impartiality as a researcher. As a self-identified bisexual, I realize that my own biases will affect my conclusions. I see my subjects through the lens of American gay subculture. However, because gay subcultures are often necessarily hidden, for fear of social and/or legal sanction, I feel that it was to my advantage to be bisexual, since it enabled me to gain the trust of gay men in a way that a heterosexual researcher could not. And because I often had to immerse myself in a subcultural milieu in order to make contact with subjects, I realize that my impartiality may be called into question. In every case, however, I strove to be as impartial as possible with my interview subjects.

THE FINDINGS

JAPAN

There are no legal sanctions against homosexuals in Japan. The age of consent for homosexual contact between males is 13, and no sodomy laws or "crimes against nature" laws exist. (Gmünder, p. 600)

Tokyo has a thriving gay subculture, and is the center of gay life in Japan, with well over 700 gay bars - the largest number of any city on the planet. Most Japanese gay bars are smaller than western gay bars, intimate little owner-operated places that serve as neighborhood hangouts, in contrast to the big discos that are well known in the west.

It was in one such place that I met Junzo, an 40- year-old unemployed man from Hirosaki, a town in northern Hokkaido, who had moved to Tokyo 20 years before in order to be able to "live a gay life." In my interviews, I found that many Japanese gay men move to Tokyo for that reason, a pattern echoed in gay urban centers around the world.

Junzo stressed that he was actually unusual for a Japanese gay man, in that he was not married to a woman. In Japan's highly structured, duty-based culture, many gay men, if not most, have taken wives because they are expected to. This practice is not unheard of in the rest of the world, but what makes Japan so unusual in this is that often the wives know even before marriage that their husband is gay. But as long as the man is a dutiful husband, a good provider, and a good father to the children, he is free to have discreet homosexual liaisons on the side. Japanese wives apparently do not see this practice as a threat to monogamy, and are content to look the other way, as long as the man's duties as a husband are fulfilled.

This sentiment was also expressed by Akira and Toshi, two Tokyo white-collar workers who I arranged a meeting with over the Internet. Both are 35 and unmarried, but again they stressed that this was not necessarily common among gay men in Japan. Akira was born and raised in Tokyo, but like Junzo, Toshi had come to Tokyo for the purpose of living "the gay life," as well as for job opportunities.

All three are out to their families, in one degree or another, and this, too is common in Japan. Again, as long as family obligations are fulfilled, much is tolerated. None, however, were out at work, which was not so much because of fear or losing jobs, so much as that Japanese culture does not encourage bringing one's private life into the workplace. "Straights wouldn't talk about their families in the workplace, either," Akira told me. None felt they would be at risk of losing their jobs if their employers inadvertently found out about their sexual orientations.

Homosexual couples do exist in Japan, and there are cases where these couples cohabitate. But the frequency of these partnerships is not as common as they seem to be in the rest of the world, probably because of the expectation of marriage described above. Japan does not have domestic partnership laws, nor is same- sex marriage allowed.

Despite the fact that the gay subculture of Tokyo is a thriving one, there is no western-style gay political movement. A gay pride parade was attempted in Tokyo several years back, but it was not well-attended due to lack of interest. None have been held since. In Japan, where there are no anti-gay laws or anti-gay societal norms to rally against, and where individual liberty is not culturally valued, there is little need or desire to form an organized movement. The only organizations that do exist are the several AIDS education groups in Japan, and a few gay newspapers.

Historically, Japan has a gay subculture that at least 400 years, especially around the Buddhist temples. This pre-dates most gay subcultures on the planet. It is most likely that this long-existent subculture and the relative stability of Japanese culture, along with the tolerated role as husbands that Japanese gays have in their culture, have led to the unique situation of Japanese gays.

CHINA & HONG KONG

Almost all of the data I was able to collect on Chinese gay life necessarily came from Hong Kong, where there is an established western-style gay subculture, thanks to the longstanding British influence. There are no gay bars, gay establishments or gay political organizations in the whole of the People's Republic of China (Gmünder, p. 159), and consequently, I was not able to locate any gay interview subjects there. Numerous gay establishments exist in Hong Kong (Gmünder, p. 519).

In the People's Republic of China, there are no laws that explicitly mention homosexuality. However, it is widely considered to disrupt the "Principle of Harmony" (Gmünder, p. 159) and it is with this catchall phrase that Chinese homosexuals have been oppressed. In Hong Kong and the associated territories, the law is based on British law, and as such, homosexual contact between men is legal at age 21 (Gmünder, p. 519). Consequently, there are many gay bars and bathhouses, many of which cater to the large western population of Hong Kong.

At one bathhouse, I met Michael, a 21-year-old Chinese store clerk, who was able to tell me about gay life in Hong Kong, and especially about life for Chinese gays.

Michael emphasized that gay life was indeed very far underground in the P.R.C., but that it did exist. Because it is necessarily so, it is very difficult for outsiders to make contact. I found this to be true in my own discreet inquiries in Shanghai, where I was only able to find out that there did exist there homosexual prostitutes (hustlers), but I felt it imprudent to pursue that avenue of inquiry in a communist country.

Whether in or out of the People's Republic, Chinese people tend to take a dim view of homosexuality. Michael emphasized that most Chinese gays were not even out to their parents, much less to their employers, which in many cases are the same. Chinese families don't want to know, he informed me. As long as he doesn't bring the issue up to his family, they don't care. And, because he is the youngest male in the family, his getting married and having children is not expected of him.

No analogous situation to the Japanese exists in China. When I asked Michael if a Chinese gay man could be married and pursue homosexual liaisons on the side, he flatly told me no. "A Chinese woman would not marry a gay man. If she found out he was gay, she would divorce him."

Chinese gay couples do exist, however, both in the P.R.C. and in Hong Kong. And according to Michael, they do cohabitate, and they are fiercely loyal to one another. But their relationships exist outside the confines of societal protection - no domestic partnership laws or legal marriages exist in either place.

Gay political organizations do not exist in either place. In the P.R.C., this is largely due to the general political oppression of Mainland China. In Hong Kong, the area is just too small, the gay population to sparse, and the issues not important enough to form an active gay movement.

When I asked Michael if gays in Hong Kong worried about the effect the recent handover would have on the lives of gays in the former British territory, he told me no. "Gays are too small of an issue in Hong Kong for the P.R.C. to worry about. As long as we don't make an issue out of it, they are content to let things be." This attitude, I suspect, is much more a reason why no political movement exists in Hong Kong than because of population size.

Although gay subculture has existed in China for at least 2,000 years - there is some explicitly gay poetry that came out of the Tung Dynasty, and there is a long history of homosexuality among the members of the imperial court in the Forbidden City - it seems that the people's revolution succeeded in driving whatever gay subculture there was deep underground.

And in Hong Kong, long inculturated with British values and laws, gays are playing a wait-and-see game along with the rest of their people. Only time will tell how political events will end up shaping gay life in Hong Kong.

VIÊT NAM

It seems that little or no gay scene or groups exist in Viêt Nam. The Spartacus guide was unable to provide any information on the legal status of homosexuality in this communist country. Only two gay bars were listed, one in Ha Noi, and one in Ho Chi Minh City (Gmünder, pp. 1202-1203), and when I attempted to visit the one in Ho Chi Minh City, I discovered that it had gone out of business.

One Semester at Sea participant reported to me that he had been propositioned for sex by a wealthy Vietnamese man (he declined), and another Semester at Sea participant reported that he had actually paid for sex with a hustler in Ho Chi Minh City, but beyond that I was not able to find information on local gays. I was not able to locate an interview subject during my stay there.

INDIA

Homosexual sex is illegal in India under Article 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which forbids "carnal intercourse against the order of nature with man, woman or animal." Article 294 also prohibits "obscene behaviour," and these laws have been used recently to oppress gay men. Recently, however, an organized gay movement has begun to form in India to resist these laws (Gmünder, p. 531).

Gay establishments do exist in India, but they are almost exclusively centered around Bombay and New Delhi. No such establishments exist in Chennai, and consequently, I was unable to locate an interview subject while I was there. I was, however, able to locate a Dutch research paper on the Internet that had made a study of gay subculture in Chennai, which was able to give me some insight into the workings of Indian gay subculture.

Although the western idea of homosexuality was introduced to India by the British - along with Victorian attitudes about sex, which is why in India there is strong repression of homosexuality - Indian culture has long recognized the fluidity of human sexuality. Specific sex roles exist for non-heterosexual men in the culture, and specific words are used to define these roles.

Among these are the "third-gendered" ali (called hijra in the north), who are commonly eunuchs, and who were mentioned in The City of Joy (Lapierre, p. ). The ali's role in Indian society is that of 'sacred prostitute,' and much like the berdache of the Native Americans, are believed to be endowed with the special power to bless newborn children. Ali often sell sex in addition to blessing newborns, and the Dutch report estimates that approximately 200 ali are operating in the Chennai area (Hekma, "Gay cultures in Madras, India").

In addition to the ali, other non-heterosexual men are identified in the Chennai area, including danga, panthi, and double-deckers. Danga are effeminate men who prefer the passive role in sex with other men. Panthi are masculine men who have sex with ali, women, and men. Double-deckers are morphological males whose gender identities are not necessarily masculine or feminine, but who prefer sex with other men.

There also exist in Chennai a large number of rent boys and hustlers, who are heterosexual, but who have sex with other men for the money (Hekma, "Gay cultures in Madras, India"). It is unfortunate that I was not able to secure an interview in India, because it would have been very interesting to learn more about these roles as they are understood by the Indians themselves.

EGYPT

Homosexual activity is not illegal in Egypt, per se, but there are regulations about "offenses against public morals and sensitivities," which are vague enough to have been used against gay men in the past (Gmünder, p. 189). The Q'uran forbids anal sex between men (liwat), and in a predominately Islamic country, Q'uranic attitudes underlie Arabic attitudes towards homosexuality. Because of this, men in Egypt are never openly homosexual, and homosexuality is a trait Egyptians associate more with Christian Copts or with tourists than Muslims (Hekma, "Gay cultures in Cairo, Egypt").

Because there is no open homosexuality in Egypt, there exist no gay bars, political organizations, or publications. And while the gay subculture is completely underground, it is not as inaccessible as Chinese gay culture, because of some very curious attitudes about sex and sexuality that are held by Arabs, which I shall explain below.

Our interport lecturer, Nadia Atif, stated in pre-port that male Semester at Sea students should avoid wearing earrings, regardless of whether or not they were homosexual, because it would attract attention from Egyptian males in a way that would probably be unwelcome.

I decided to test her assertion, and found it was true - by wearing an earring, I received a lot of sexual attention from (presumably) heterosexual males in Egypt. All kinds of sexual advances were made towards me, from winks and whistles, to groping and fondling my breasts, buttocks or genitals, to outright offers of sex. But even when I wasn't wearing the earring, I received such attention, although not to as great a degree. And at least half a dozen other male Semester at Sea students (some gay and some straight) reported to me that they, too, had been the focus of sexual attention from Egyptian males.

Strange as this behavior may be, coming from heterosexuals, and especially in a country where there is no open homosexuality, I believe there is a good explanation for it.

First of all, a strong division exists in the Arab mind between private and public behavior, and as long as a shameful behavior, such as homosexual sex, never becomes public, it is not damaging to an Egyptian man's honor. And as tourists are not thought to have any honor in the Egyptian mind, being from outside the Egyptian culture, they are suitable targets for sexual advances (Hekma, "Gay cultures in Cairo, Egypt"). This was certainly true of women from Semester at Sea who were sexually harassed, whereas Islamic women would not have received that kind of attention.

Secondly, in the Islamic world, there is an unwritten rule that any unmarried man can have homosexual sex, and as long as he is the sexually active partner in sex (that is, anally or orally the inserter), he is not gay. Only the man who is penetrated, anally or orally, is considered to be "gay," and as such, less than a man.

This is because, in the Arab world, sex equals power, and men are more powerful than women are. Someone who takes on the "female role" in sex, that is, the submissive recipient of the male's lust, is reduced to the role of women, and is therefore less of a man. As long as a man is dominant in sex, he is not lessening his role, or jeopardizing his status as a "straight" man. And usually, because this is a power relationship as much as a sexual one, the younger partner in a coupling is expected to be the passive one - which made many Semester at Sea men ideal targets for this kind of sexual attention. (Hekma, "Gay cultures in Cairo, Egypt").

Thirdly, in the Islamic world, sexual contact between men and women is highly restricted, especially before marriage. For many unmarried Islamic men, sex with any woman before marriage is unthinkable, if not impossible. Consequently, homosexual sex is the only possible sexual outlet for sexually repressed heterosexual men. It's the "prison sex syndrome" - where females are not available, heterosexual men will seek out sex with homosexual men in order to "get off."

It is the combination of these three factors that I believe make homosexual conduct so widespread in Egypt among heterosexual men, and, as I shall mention later, in Morocco.

Speaking from my own experience in Egypt, I also think that many heterosexual Islamic men have a well-developed sense of "gaydar," and I suspect many of them are not even aware they have it. Gaydar is gay slang for the ability to single out a stranger as homosexual, even when there are no overt signs of homosexuality. Gaydar is largely an unconscious process, picking up on subtle cues that many homosexuals unconsciously project, either in dress, speech, demeanor or body language, but that most people would not even notice.

Because unmarried heterosexual Islamic men look for homosexual sex partners, either consciously or unconsciously, they have honed their ability to discreetly pick out homosexuals at a glance. Of course, gaydar is not foolproof, and this in itself may explain the number of straight Semester at Sea men who were also hit on.

While wandering a Cairo bazaar with a female friend, I was sexually approached by a young Egyptian man. I was not wearing an earring at the time, nor was I behaving in any overtly homosexual manner. Yet he was able to figure out I was not exclusively heterosexual. It is my suspicion that he knew intuitively, and that this ability, so rare among heterosexual men in the west, is common among heterosexual men in the Islamic world.

I was, unfortunately, unable to interview any of these heterosexual men who made advances to me. Once it became clear that I was not willing to have sex, they lost interest in me. They were either unwilling or unable to talk about their reasons for hitting on me, and about homosexuality in Egypt. So it is only from my observations, and my readings, that I can speak about gay life in the Islamic world.

CYPRUS & GREECE

Because of the similarities in culture between Greek southern Cyprus and Greece, I am choosing to cover both of them in the same section. There are some differences, which I will point to below, but the gay subcultures of both countries are alike enough and share enough cultural heritage, in addition to a common language, to be described together.

There are currently no laws in Greece which prohibit same-sex sexual contact, thanks in part to pressure put on Greece by the European Union, which encourages its member states to be tolerant of homosexuals. The same situation exists in Greek southern Cyprus, which recently repealed its anti-gay laws after pressure from the E.U., of which Cyprus wants to become a member (Gmünder, pp. 505, 171). I have no information on the status of gays in Turkish northern Cyprus (I can only presume they are similar to those situations in the rest of the Islamic world), and so when I speak of Cyprus, I am only speaking of southern, Greek Cyprus.

Athens is the center of gay life in Greece, and is a magnet for Greek gays from all over Greece. Likewise, Limassol is the gay center of Cyprus, and also is a magnet for Greek Cypriot gays. Both cities have the highest concentration of gay bars, and the largest gay subcultures of their respective countries. Limassol, however, as a tourist town, has a high concentration of foreigners, and consequently, its gay bars tend to be more targeted at gay European tourists who come to Cyprus. Gay bars in Athens tend to be more authentically Greek.

Both countries are European in their outlook on homosexuality, meaning they are relatively progressive in their tolerance of homosexuals, relative to the rest of the world. Compared with the rest of Europe, however, Greece and Cyprus are less open and accepting, as evidenced by their having to be pressured to drop anti- gay laws by the E.U. Greek and Cypriot culture, like most of the west, are in the midst of social change in regards to attitudes about homosexuality.

"The country as a whole is more accepting of it," I was told by Christos, 38, a doctor from Athens, "But individual families aren't necessarily so." Because of the tight-knit family-clan structure and the influence of the Greek Orthodox Church, many families are conservative and don't accept it when their gay children decide to do the "modern thing" and come out. Consequently, like in urban areas all over Europe and North America, the young gay men flock to the urban areas where they can be free to live a gay life, without family pressure.

"My family doesn't know," said Petros, 32, a hotel desk clerk from Limassol. "They wouldn't understand." And since Petros' family lives in Limassol as well, it is difficult for him to feel as free about his sexuality as his friends whose families live in other parts of Cyprus. Both countries have active gay groups, but Cyprus, having a smaller population is far less involved. Greece, on the other hand, has larger and more powerful gay groups, although it still lags behind the rest of Europe and North America. Much of this has to do with the oppressive dictatorship that controlled Greece from 1967-1974.

"Life was bad for gays then, under the dictatorship," Christos told me. "Only the most effeminate were tolerated, because Greek culture saw them as having been 'born that way'," instead of it being a moral problem, as non-effeminate gays were seen during that time.

It wasn't until the early 1980's, according to Christos, that homosexuality stopped being a taboo subject. At that time, AIDS had hit, and people were forced to start acknowledging homosexuality. It wasn't until 1976 that the first gay bar opened in Athens. Today, however, in both Cyprus and Greece, homosexuality is talked about openly, thanks in large part to the massive information and education campaigns which have been waged in both countries to fight AIDS.

"Cyprus has changed since the mid-1970's, when I arrived here," I was told by Hank, 42, a Dutch expatriate living in Limassol. "Back then, the Islamic Turkish influence on Cypriot culture was much more prevalent. Straight men would flirt with you, even have sex with you. Today, however, the dichotomy between straight and gay are much stronger."

Greek and Cypriot gays are also optimistic about the future, with the cultural influence of the E.U. In both Greece and Cyprus, gays told me that they thought that the E.U. would eventually allow them to marry, a prospect that even many American gays don't see in the near future.

It is interesting to note that things are coming full-circle for Greek gays. Historically, Greece and its territories (like Cyprus) had thriving gay cultures. In ancient Greece, it was common, even expected, for a young, unmarried man in the upper classes to take a male lover until he married. Even Greek mythology has examples of this. For instance, Zeus, the king of the gods notorious for his sexual appetites, took Ganymede, a boy, as a lover.

But the arrival of Christianity, and later the conquest of Greece and Cyprus by Islamic Turks, ended this golden age of tolerance. It is only now, in the 20th century, that these two countries are returning to a level of acceptance of same-sex relationships.

SPAIN

Sex between men in Spain is legal at age 16 (Gmünder, p. 765), and of all of the countries we've visited on this voyage, Spain is the most like the United States in its tolerance and attitudes towards gays. In some legal ways, gay Spaniards are better off than their American counterparts. For instance, the Spanish constitution, drafted after the fall of the Franco dictatorship, guarantees sexual freedom on a par with religious freedom. And while the constitution doesn't specify homosexuality, courts have interpreted the sexual freedom clause to apply to homosexuals.

Consequently, job and housing discrimination against gays is prohibited, and Spanish hate crime laws have even been successfully used recently to take on the Spanish Catholic Church when certain bishops spoke out against homosexual equality.

It was very fortunate for my research of gay culture in Spain that we had Manuel Gomez-Lara as our interport lecturer. Manuel is actively involved in the Spanish gay liberation movement, and has been involved in academic circles dealing with gay and lesbian issues. He recently participated in Spain's first government-sponsored conference on gay and lesbian issues, and is well versed in the subject. Most of my information about Spain came from him.

Spain has two primary urban areas with large gay concentrations, Madrid and Barcelona. There are a large number of gay bars, restaurants, baths, organizations and publications in both of these areas, as well as many more throughout the rest of the country. Spanish political groups are extremely powerful and self-confident, and are very close to having a domestic partnership law passed, probably in the very near future. Adoption of children by gay couples has come to the forefront of Spanish political debate, which shows how much more advanced Spain is in terms of gay liberation than any of the other countries we have visited.

Like gays in most of the western world, Spanish gays enjoy unprecedented freedom. Its membership the gay-tolerant the E.U. suggests not only that Spanish gay culture will continue to enjoy greater freedom, but also that Spanish gays will also be leaders in fighting for the rights of other gay Europeans, such as in Greece and Cyprus.

Spanish gay couples exist in numbers as freely as they do in the United States, and as mentioned earlier, have growing political clout. Curiously enough, a situation similar to Japan has started developing recently, especially in the area around Sevilla, where Spanish gays have started taking wives as well as having male lovers, and all parties are aware of each other. This may be in part due to the growing acceptance of homosexuals in Spanish culture, and in part to the tolerant attitude many Europeans have towards having both a spouse and a lover at the same time.

While this may seem contradictory in light of the power of Catholic culture on Spain, it is important to note that the majority of all Spanish Catholics are non- practicing. The Catholic Church still teaches against homosexuality, but it is clear that the church is diminishing in its ability to direct public policy.

The Spanish gay subculture has come a long way in the years since Franco. Under Franco, homosexuality was illegal and punishable by stiff jail sentences. With the reinstitution of the monarchy, Spanish culture has undergone a massive social change, and Spanish gay culture has reaped the benefits of this change.

An interesting side note to my study of homosexuality in Spain: I was discussing the attitudes of straight men and homosexual sex in the Islamic world with Manuel, and he informed me that this was also a "very Spanish" attitude as well. I asked him why he thought this was, and he theorized that the attitude came to Spain with the Moors, and remained even after other parts of their culture had been eliminated.

Since similar attitudes about heterosexual males having sex with men also are common in Latin America - I've encountered the same attitude in Mexican migrant farm workers working in the United States - one can only assume that the attitude traveled to the new world with the Spanish and took root there. Thus, we have another case of culture spreading far from its origins, first through the Arab conquests into Spain, and from there into the Americas. American corporations with their marketing campaigns didn't invent the globalization process.

MOROCCO

Homosexual sex is illegal in Morocco under Article 489 of the penal code, with a penalty of 6 months to 3 years in prison (Gmünder, p. 765). With our arrival in Casablanca, we were back in a sexually repressive part of the world, which was quite a contrast after sexually liberated Spain.

Because attitudes and gay culture in Morocco are fairly similar to Egypt, due to the influence of Islam, I won't repeat what I said there, except to say that both I and other male Semester at Sea students were approached sexually by (presumably) heterosexual men with offers of sex. In one case, in Marrakech, a young man (maybe 18 or 19) who wanted me to give him money for sex approached me. (I was wearing an earring at the time)

I tried asking him why he did it, but his English wasn't good enough to communicate more than what he wanted, and for how much (200 dirhams). I suspect that he was heterosexual, but like most young men in the Islamic world, not adverse to "getting off" with a gay man, and if he could make a little money off it, so much the better. A single male foreigner, walking alone in a tourist area, is seen as very likely a gay tourist.

Indeed, gay tourists appear to be common in the Islamic world, especially wealthy Europeans, who know that gay sex is easy there and travel there to take advantage of it. Increasingly, militant Islamic groups are making it known that the influence of these tourists are not welcome, and some attacks specifically targeted at gay tourists have taken place. (Gmünder, pp. 639, 189). In fact, the Spartacus guide warns that Agadir and Marrakech can be very dangerous places for gay tourists to be (Gmünder, p. 639) especially after dark.

CONCLUSION

I have attempted to demonstrate in this paper that widely divergent attitudes exist about gay men, homosexuality, and gay culture around the world, and that gay cultures are at different stages of development in different countries. Neither norms of acceptance nor of condemnation are universal.

In some places, like Spain, Greece, Cyprus and Japan, homosexuality is accepted, if not tolerated. In others, like India, Egypt, Morocco and China, it is repressed, sometimes brutally. Yet, paradoxically, sometimes when the repression is most brutal, the gay subculture continues to thrive, as in India, Morocco and Egypt. In some places the gay subculture includes heterosexual men, as in Morocco and Egypt, and in others it is more exclusive, as in Cyprus. In some places the gay culture is long established and stable, as in Japan, Morocco or Egypt, and in other places, it is undergoing changes rapidly, as in India, Cyprus, Greece and Spain.

I also have attempted to give a nice synopsis of gay life in each of the cultures we've visited, the briefest of overviews of the status of gay men around the world based on my own limited exposure and research. It would be interesting to see the research that will come in the future, as the fairly new field of queer studies opens up and invites scholars to study more thoroughly the areas I have covered. Indeed, gay subcultures in any one of the countries studied could be the subject of extensive research.

But that is for other scholars to do, not me.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gmünder, Bruno
Spartacus International Gay Guide '97/198, 26th edition, 1997, Bruno Gmünder Verlag GMBH, Berlin.

Hekma, Gert
At Home in a World of Strangers: Towards a Comparison of Gay Urban Cultures, Research project proposal to the Dutch Foundation for Scholarly Research, 1997, Amsterdam Gay & Lesbian Studies website, http://www.pscw.uva.nl/gl.

Lapierre, Dominique
The City of Joy, 1985, Time Warner Books, New York



The following note from James Spates, CORE director, was written on the bottom of my paper when I received it back:

Kevyn -
Really quite wonderful.
An incredible "comparative report."
By far one of the best on the voyage!!
Kudos
JS
A+

Day 60: Gulf of Suez

Day 58: Red Sea

Day 56: Gulf of Aden

Day 54: Arabian Sea

Day 52: Arabian Sea

Day 50: Bay of Bengal

Day 48: Chennai, India

Day 46: Chennai, India