– Presenter: “The number of homosexuals is small especially in Arab countries which regard homosexuality as a crime against nature and make it punishable by law since society refuses this phenomenon.”
The rise of Haifa Wehbe and other singers who can’t really sing but find success in the music world is a phenomenon. I am not a phenomenon.
– Dr. Haddad: “There is no study which says that a person is born gay”.
Why bring a “Specialist in urinary tract surgery & reproductive organs” to a show discussing homosexuality?
– Dr. Haddad: “This is not a disease which a human is born with. But later you and I will discuss if this is a disease or not”.
You said disease, Doc. We know where you stand.
– Dr. Shallita (Psychiatrist): “I can see that this gay man is not fully immersed in his homosexuality.”
Please, people. Don’y pray away the gay…
– Dr Shallita: “Why do parents kick their gay children out of the house? We need to take care of this teenager who is doing all of this to get their attention & affection”.
Kids… If your parents aren’t giving you enough love (or money), pretend you’re gay!
– Dr. Haddad: “If this boy has been sexually molested by his father since he was a young kid, then this person has every possibility to be gay.”
Being gay equals being molested by your father and your 16 year old friend from school. Said the Urologist.
– What is up with the horror noises when the gay guy found 10,043 profiles when he searched for Lebanese gays on Manjam? Why do you wanna scare your viewers? Bel3akes. Allah Yzeedon!
– What is up with the Halloween night at a gay pub? Why is that so relevant to the topic at hand? Don’t all clubs in Lebanon have a Halloween night where everyone dresses up?
– When MTV showed the clip of the “gay partying”, it showed the EXACT SAME CLIP that they showed during the “Prostitution episode”: a guy dancing like a girl. Very fucked up, MTV.
– MTV shows two “feminine looking” men walking on the street, directly assuming they’re gay. Stereotype much?
– The transition from the topic of homosexuality to the topic of transexuality wasn’t clear. We talked about gays and lesbians, talked about transsexuals, then showed a relationship between two gay men. Yes! In that exact order! How is your viewer going to understand that transexuality and homosexuality are DIFFERENT and NOT the same after you mixed everything up?
– The show also mixed transsexuals with transvestites (cross dressers). Randa the transsexual is talking about her suicidal thoughts, getting raped, during segments where Dr. Shalita talked about how mothers should watch out for young kids who like to wear women’s shoes and makeup since this leads to transexuality. Wait…what? Huh? Again with equating transexuality to cross dressing! Oh, the horror. I die.
– The only time lesbians were mentioned was when two lesbians fought outside a gay pub. Oh but there WAS another 99 second interview with a lesbian at the end of the show; a lesbian who is a lesbian NOW but later wants to get married and have kids because “you can’t escape from the society you’re in”. Represent! =)
– It was nice to see two men in a relationship, holding hands on the bed. They even shared a kiss.
The conclusion that the presenter did was nice:
“Is homophobia justified? This rejection by society and family brings deep suffering to those people, making them feel rejected and marginalized, leading for some teenagers to commit suicide and for others to boast their sexuality. Isn’t it time to amend the Lebanese law which regards homosexuality as crime punishable by law, especially considering that in any family there might be a gay person. So do we reject a brother? Do we get disgusted by a sister? Do we ignore a friend? Do we kill a neighbor, just because their sexual orientation is different from ours, and the way they feel towards others is different from our feelings?”
66 minutes is not enough to talk about all of those issues.
What we were left with is a big hot mess.
Why didn’t you interview a parent who is supportive of their gay daughter & son?
Why not include a Doctor/professional/someone who says “It’s Okay to be Gay”?
Fine. I’ll say it. Dear 10 year old gay girls and boys: “It’s Okay to be Gay”.
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Click HERE to watch the episode in full.
Hi mom. It's me. Beirut Boy. 
TBH, i agree with you in many things but do not forget that Lebanon is not allowed to talk that much in such a topic cause Lebanon signed an agreement that prohibit such actions !!!
I found it interesting in someway 😀
I don’t know. I didn’t watch it. People tell me, that it’s just in your age later it will change 😀
Too right you are and I said the same things in my comment on their site , a Urologist is a surgeon who has nothing NOTHING to do with homosexuality , they should have interviwed a psychiatrist !!! and that Dr Shallita is a Psychologue , she’s not a psychiatrist , it’s NOT the same thing.
Ils ont fait plein d’amalgames et ont tout mélangés et le résultat est foireux à part la conclusion…Aljadeed reste la chaine la plus tolérante de toutes.
Disturbing.
Especially Dr. Haddad who has no idea what he is talking about.
To all my gay brothers and sisters in Lebanon. We here in America still have a lot of discrimination regarding our natural born sexuality, but apparently it seems to be even more difficult for all of you there in Lebanon..I will continue to fight for our equality here and abroad in any way that I can, and I say to you be strong, be wise, and don’t let anyone change the beauty in your hearts! What a sad world this would be without all of the amazing “gifts” that our global gay community has bestowed upon society. The arts, the music, the theater, the intellectuals, athletes, and so much more. Viva la Differance!!! My love to all, Max in America
Dr. Haddad: ‘There is no study which says that a person is born gay’, added to the non-sense uttered by Dr. Shallita! I wonder how they end up digging illiterate, ignorant doctors! It’s lamentable. Any 3rd or 4th year psych student would know that what those doctors said was irrelevant to an extreme.
Thanks for the post, and great blog!
Enno out of ALL the doctors in the country you bring a “urologist”?! Ay ay ay.
Thanks for the comment J. =)
Oh and there was also a part where the Psychiatrist said that if a mother washes her son’s hair regularly that would make him a potential homosexual! HUH ?
does she even know what she’s talking about ?
Homosexuality is not genetic.
It’s actually very easy to deduce that. Here’s how:
Identical Twins.
If homosexuality is genetic, and one of the twins is gay, then there should be a 100% chance that the other is gay.
Why? Because Identical twins have the exact same Genetics.
But in reality, the concordance rate is never 100%.
In other words, it is very common for one of the twins to be gay, and the other to be straight.
Homosexuals hide behind the “Born gay” hypothesis because, if homosexuality is inborn, then it would be wrong to blame them for it.
Hi BeirutBoi,
I only came across your blog fairly recently (and im sorry to say i’d missed the tahkik episode on homosexuality at the time it happened and only watched it online yest)…But better late than never when it comes to feedback:).
I think Mrs. Claude was hoping to bring across a message of tolerance through the episode, but somewhere in the middle it got lost…The choice of the medical doc was not only bad because of his specialty (i guess the choice might be rooted in the assumption that a 7akim rjel’s ‘thoughts’ would have some weight among the ‘easily impressible’ viewers who might know about the subject even less than Haddad) but also because he seemed a bit homophobic or to say the least ill-informed: Any psychology textbook clearly states that homosexuality has long been removed from the list of psychiatric diseases.
I think there is a DANGER in continuously portraying homosexuals with such authoritative voices (such as the Urologist and his likes) as people who were molested as children and not focusing or mentioning in any way an alternative scenario: you could have an idyllic childhood and still find that you’re attracted to your own gender as you grow older. This was not the first show where the first pattern is emphasized and re-emphasized. If this is the image the public is drilled with, then the generic profile of the homosexual as a sick, traumatized person who carries a lot of psychological baggage from his past will be reinforced/created in people’s minds. How then would one be able to convince people that homosexuality, much like hetrosexuality, is a sexual orientation, not a disease?
Re ObservingEgo about homosexuality not being inborn and homosexuals claiming that is genetic only to avoid judgment, do you mean you believe sexuality is a CHOICE? in which case, don’t you think if gay people (or people in general) were able to exercise full control on whom they’re attracted to, they would “opt” to be “straight” (how i hate these labels) if only to avoid the nuisances, to put it very mildly, non-hetero, non-conventional, non-mainstream people in Lebanon and the Arab world face? Do you think Samo who gave his testimonial in the episode would not opt to be straight, if it were really a matter of choice, and avoid all the concerns/fears he voices out loud about not being able to provide his parents with grandchildren and himself with needed family support in old age?
Do you think anyone ENJOYS being shunned by family and castigated by community et al? If you do, then I can see where from comes your “Homosexuals hide behind the “Born gay” hypothesis because, if homosexuality is inborn, then it would be wrong to blame them for it”.
Love your blog BB
Peace,
S.
Do you have a blog or something? If not, make one cause a voice like yours should definitely be online!
Thanks for the review you gave the show, S!
You said: “Any psychology textbook clearly states that homosexuality has long been removed from the list of psychiatric diseases.”
And you’re right. I just wonder when the Lebanese government will start buying those new psychology textbooks 😉
ahamma chi el unibrow btw heyyy 😛
Gays or not who cares.