FOFA #1156 – A Gay Man’s Return to the Muslim World

To many, the Middle East is a tantalizing mix of danger and desire. To a gay travel writer it’s an adventure to a world where same-sex affection blurs in the sand.

Today, Michael Luongo joins us to talk about his book tour through the Middle East to promote “Gay Travels in the Muslim World” a collection of true stories of men sexually attracted to other men in places like Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s the first gay American book ever translated into Arabic and was the first gay themed book ever presented at an Arabic language book fair.

Listen as Michael shares with us his how his controversial book got translated into Arabic, the difficulty of being in one of the world’s largest book fairs and why it was so hard to do a reading in Israel.

Michael also shares with us some safety issues for Westerners when traveling to the Middle East, his experience meeting Queen Rania of Jordan and why some men fetishize Middle Easterners.

Plus a heart-wrenching letter from a Muslim listener who left an abusive environment in Tajikistan to live as an openly gay man in America.

And what you can do to help gay refugees from the Middle East- International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Campaign and Human Rights Watch.

Read more about Michael’s travels on the Huffington Post and UPDATE: Gay City News.

[Originally Posted on 03.10.10]

Featured Book:
Michael T. Luongo – Gay Travels in the Muslim World: Amazon | Site

Featured Music:
Matt Alber – Hide Nothing: iTunes | Amazon

RSS FEED | SUBSCRIBE ON iTUNES
SUBSCRIBE ON: GOOGLE

This entry was posted on Friday, September 10th, 2010 at 1:02 am and is filed under Classic Podcasts, Podcast. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.