Transnational Activism from the Closet: Gay Rights in the Middle East.

As part of a larger book project, the author proposes to begin by noting targeted violence against gay men in the Middle East including Egypt. This includes raids, abductions, imprisonments, torture, honor killings and public executions. One of the most well-known events is the Queen Boat 52 case, where 52 allegedly gay men were rounded up, imprisoned, and tried before Egypt's Emergency State Security courts. The Egyptian public supported and continues to support the Egyptian state's crackdown on gays. These events point to an increasing association between homosexuality and terror, one that has legitimated torture of gays. Furthermore, this association is being furthered with declarations that homosexuality is unislamic, despite interpretations of Islamic law demonstrating the opposite claim by the author (who was originally trained as a Muslim Imam). Considering this, the author asks whether and how gay rights can become a reality in Egypt and the Middle East. To do this, he re-examines the notion of "human rights," reflecting on new ways to conceptualize them in order to allow for the promotion of gay rights in Egypt and the Middle East. With this goal in mind, he explores how to effect change through reinterpretations of human rights, Islam, and via transnational "closeted" spaces -- via both traditional networks and those of the cyber variety. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]