The other day, I visited my local sexual health clinic, as all responsible adults should do – be they heterosexual, homosexual, asexual. There was the standard list of sexual health questions. Evidently, this included asking me if I engaged in commercial sex.
“Commerical sex?” I repeated. It took me a moment to figure that one out.
But when I did, I was very tempted to reply: “No, not commercial. Just arthouse.”
**
Anyway, big news in the past few weeks. Gay marriage has been legalized in New York, London Gay Pride took place with a legion of corporate sponsors…and I’ve just relocated to a country where homosexual acts are illegal! Yes, rather suddenly, I’ve moved to the Middle East. The fag hag relocates from Vauxhall to the land of Shari’a law.
Of course, this does not mean that there aren’t ANY gay men in this part of the world. Far from it. But it’s kind of like last month’s decision by the Church of England regarding gay bishops: Gay bishops will be allowed in the Church, so long as they remain celibate.
Hm, let’s think about that for a moment. Straight bishops, of course, don’t have to remain celibate. But because sex outside of marriage is unacceptable for a bishop, and gay marriage isn’t recognized by the Church…. Well, I guess any aspiring gay bishops will just have to abstain for the remainder of their liturgical careers! Perhaps it’s a small price to pay for the honor to be the Church of England’s first out-and-publicly-celibate gay bishop.
Here the Church is effectively saying: “We know you’re gay. You’re just not allowed to act on it.”
Now that’s quite a challenge for most Western gay men I know.
From what I hear and have experienced, this is not a massively different attitude from “authorities” in Muslim countries. So I will keep on observing — and I intend to keep you entertained and enlightened with my blog posts from here. So stayed tuned, true believers, for the Adventures of the Fag Hag in the Middle East…
Oh, one more thing. I assure you, this is not some ridiculous publicity/content stunt, and I have actually moved to another continent. Unlike that secret lesbian blogger in Syria, I am a REAL FAG HAG living in the Middle East, and not some middle-aged American white guy writing from Scotland. I won’t be making any of this stuff up…
And in case you think I’ve abandoned the UK completely, I haven’t. Over the weekend, I was interviewed by a British journalist who is writing an article on fag hags! That article should be coming out this summer in a leading LGBT magazine in the UK, and I’ll keep you posted when it does.
In the meantime, 40°C heat beckons, and Shari’a law. I head out into the desert sands…. (a bit melodramatic, I know). I’ll tell you what I find out there.
