by joseph nast
ynetnews.com
MideastPiece.com is not your standard blog about the Middle East.
For instance, one posting, titled “GAY GAY GAY,” shows a portrait of Lawrence of Arabia, in which the legendary British soldier looks unmistakably feminine.
“Did you know Lawrence of Arabia, the hero of Arab nationalism, was probably a big homo, not to mention a lover of Mideast pieces like me and John?” wrote the blog’s cofounder, Matt Lebow, in his introduction to the entry. Lebow, originally from Vermont, now lives in Jerusalem.
Along with John Leonard, Lebow set up MideastPiece.com with the mission of uniting Jewish and Arab gay men who believe in peace and building bridges between their communities.
The site’s mission statement notes: “Soldiers are hot. They should not be killed in war. They should be trained — strenuously — and put on display for all to lust after. That’s Mideast Piece.”
The next item reads: “Gay men and their supporters face similar challenges all over the world. Mideast Piece is where a shared dialogue can provide solutions, mutual support and hope to gay men of the region — and tips on where to get a great body wax.”
Launched just 10 weeks ago, the blog already has recorded its 100,000th unique visitor.
“We see our blog as serving an educational and inspirational function in a region where homosexuality is generally taboo,” said Leonard, a North Carolina native currently living in Tel Aviv.
“We’re engaging gay Jews and Arabs in open dialogue about their lives and the similar struggles they face. There is no other blog doing this work.”
The blog is updated at least a dozen times a week and includes diverse, original content such as gay Middle Eastern news and resource lists, culture and activism. It also runs news content from blog partners in several countries in the region, including Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
More importantly, Leonard and Lebow say, the blog goes beyond the steamy photos and stories that tend to characterize most gay blogs, offering a platform for gay Arab men and women for whom coming out of the closet could be a death sentence.
“Though we use the Middle Eastern male as our focal point of admiration, our blog also appeals to women and minority groups everywhere, as evidenced by the comments our entries solicit,” Lebow said.
In a report on a recent conference in Haifa convened by ASWAT, a group of Arab Israeli and Palestinian lesbians, the blog wrote about Samira, a Muslim woman with a Jewish girlfriend who told the conference about the difficulties she faced when she came out to her family.
We are “proud of these women and the important work they’re doing! It’s another example of how LGBT rights work in the Middle East and brings people together — more PEACE in the Middle East!” wrote Lebow and Leonard in their posting.
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California