Tunis gay

Many Faces of Gay in Tunisia

In Tunisia gay life has many faces: from secretive post-marital same-sex-not-gay quickies among straight husbands, to ongoing pre-marital youth same-sex-not-gay with friends, to totally gay friendship networks among alternative age peers, to monogamous boyfriend couples to discrete liaisons from the internet. It is not easy to label the &#;scene&#; here because it is not organized, not open, not admitted, yet it&#;s cruisy, sexy, internet-connected and quite populous. There is no LGBT organization or office.

During my visit I chatted with two very different gay men, one a young student at a local university and the other a retired Italian resident of Tunis now self-employed. Their gay worlds are similar and different.

A Youthful Student With a Long Future

Ari, a university noun studying architecture, and I met at tea time and had creamy heavy hot chocolate at a trendy contemporary coffee shop and later went for pizza across the street.

Ari is a gregarious gay youth of 20 maturing out of his twink years. Thoughtful, expressive, verbal (4 languages), in

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Last updated: 16 June

Types of criminalisation

  • Criminalises LGBT people
  • Criminalises sexual activity between males
  • Criminalises sexual activity between females

Summary

Same-sex sexual activity is prohibited under the Penal Code , which criminalises acts of ‘sodomy’. This provision carries a maximum penalty of three years’ imprisonment. Both men and women are criminalised under this law.

Tunisia adopted the ‘sodomy’ provision in its Penal Code, which is still in force today (subject to amendments). Tunisia was at the time a protectorate state of France, which had by that time decriminalised same-sex sexual activity in its own laws.

There is substantial evidence of the law being enforced in recent years, with LGBT people being frequently subject to arrest. Local organisations have reported hundreds of arrests since the Revolution. Detained people are regularly subjected to forced anal examinations, a practice which has bee

At a café on the avenue, for two dinars or so (equivalent to $) one can while away a whole afternoon reading a newspaper, sipping a Coke, and perusing the passing crowd as if one were a local. Given the history of North Africa, Tunisians carry out not have a single, identifiable “look,” and some of my fair-haired, blue-eyed students—people of Berber extraction—are sometimes mistaken by other Tunisians for Westerners. (The Berber presence predates the Arab conquest of North Africa.) In deference to my hosts and as an attempt to “pass,” I never drank alcohol in public, just as I never wore shorts or T-shirts, and I learned a not many words of Tunisian Arabic. However, I was never mistaken for a local. Something about my appearance—or perhaps it was the proof that I drank “cola-light”—always gave me away, though generally people assumed I was French rather than American.

What I almost never saw from my seat at my favorite haunt—the Café de Paris, chosen because, not attached to a hotel, it always attracted more Tunisians than tourists—were any signs of a visible, easily identifiable gay or lesbi

Gay Guide Tunisia

According to article , homosexuality is illegal in Tunisia and can be punished with up to three years of imprisonment. Compared to other Muslim countries, convictions of homosexuals are less frequent, but the figures for recent years are still alarming: while 56 people were convicted in , were convicted in At the beginning of , one case caused international attention: A young student who reported rape by two men who allegedly robbed him of his possessions was finally sentenced to eight months' imprisonment for homosexual acts. Even tourists are not secure from the law, so be meticulous , especially when it comes to sex for sale: adj blackmail attempts could be the consequence. In a TV interview in , the Tunisian Minister of Human Rights rejected the require for the abolition of article - on the grounds that freedom of expression had its limits and "perverse" homosexuals needed medical treatment. Homosexuals are subject to severe discrimination and physical violence in the country. But there is progress: in the first official LGBT organisation in the country, Asso