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History
Homosexual activity in Dubai
?
Homosexual activity in Dubai is illegal (death penalty as punishment).
Illegal (death penalty as punishment)
LGBT activities are illegal in the UAE. Punishments (under sharia law) include death, life in prison, floggings, fines, deportation, chemical castration, forced psychological treatments, honor killings, beatings, forced anal examinations, forced hormone injections, and torture.
Same-sex marriage in Dubai
?
Same-sex marriage in Dubai is banned.
Censorship of LGBT issues in Dubai
?
Censorship of LGBT issues in Dubai is imprisonment as punishment.
Current status
Imprisonment as punishment
In the United Arab Emirates, access to many websites discussing LGBTQ+ topics is blocked by ISPs. The 2012 Law on Combating Cybercrimes criminalises the "condoning, provoking, or promoting of sin through the comput
How can a sense of belonging be forged in a setting where one’s existence is forbidden? That is the question that LSE’s Dr Centner and his co-author Harvard’s Manoel Pereira Neto explore in their groundbreaking research into Dubai’s expatriate gay men’s nightlife.
But it was not an easy topic to research. Dr Centner explains: “It's an illegal, or criminalised, identity and place of behaviours and practices, so in a very general sense, it's a taboo. And taboo subjects are very often under-researched, sometimes because people acquire a hard time gaining access, gaining that reliance, but also because, even if people gain that access, there could be significant repercussions for themselves as researchers, or for the people who are the research participants.
“As two queer researchers, we were able to enter the worlds of relatively privileged Western gay expatriates. Secrecy is often the norm, but the field was familiar to us, through previous visits and investigate projects.”
These were indeed ‘parties’ ...[but] not bars identified as gay. Not a single venue’s webpage uses the word ‘gay’ or related euphemisms, nor execute they hint at targeting
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Last updated: 17 December 2024
Types of criminalisation
Criminalises LGBT people
Criminalises sexual activity between males
Criminalises sexual activity between females
Criminalises the gender expression of trans people
Imposes the death penalty
Summary
Same-sex sexual activity is prohibited under the Criminal Codes of the Emirates of Abu Dhabi, which criminalises ‘unnatural sex with another person’, and Dubai, which criminalises acts of ‘sodomy’. The Federal Penal Code criminalises ‘voluntary debasement’, but it is not clear what acts this covers. These provisions transport a maximum penalty of fourteen years’ imprisonment. Both men and women are criminalised under the regulation. Same-sex sexual activity may also be penalised under Sharia law, under which the death penalty is possible, though there is no evidence that this has been used against LGBT people.
In addition to potentially being captured by laws that criminalise homosexual activity, trans people may also face prosec
We recently saw that Dubai is due to hold a conference on Queer rights and to say we were shocked would be an understatement.
We haven’t yet travelled to Dubai as a gay couple, partly because we are apprehensive to…
To inspect further we related with Liam, a gay guy who lived in Dubai for most of his life to learn more about the reality of being gay in Dubai and spot out what consultation he had for gay travellers thinking about going.
We always believe it’s significant to give people a voice and to share stories of genuinely living in a nation as an Queer person.
Read our interview with Liam below to learn more about gay experience and gay commute in Dubai:
Gay Being in Dubai & Advice for Lgbtq+ Travel
Meet Liam
Sion: Hi Liam, please provide some background on yourself and your time living in Dubai to procure us started.
Liam: Hi, my name is Liam and I was born in 1993 in the UK however in the early 90’s my family started working in the Middle East. In 1999 they decided to move to Dubai and possess been there ever since.
I lived in Dubai from age 5 to 18 when I moved to Leeds for University and since then normally see Dubai 2-3 times a year.
Gr
Gay expat reveals what it’s like to live in Dubai where homosexuality is punishable by 10 years in prison
ON the surface, creature gay in Dubai sounds like a dangerous prospect.
Indeed, should you be unlucky enough to be caught engaging in homosexual activity in the region, reports claim that punishment can range from 10 years in prison, fines, deportation and even the death penalty.
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Despite this, Dubai is host to a thriving underground gay scene, with men flocking to unofficial LGBT clubs with petty fear of the consequences, according to Detained in Dubai.
Here, Australian expat Paul Ewart shares his experience of entity a gay human in Dubai.
Speakers boom in the darkly lit, smoky room.
It’s 2am and the club is packed with a sea of sweaty, homosexual men getting their groove on to a Madonna classic — and I’m one of them.
After an all-day drinking session, followed by a spot of impromptu karaoke, during which I made friends with a lovely lesbian couple (we bonded over our love of ‘80s power ballads) I’ve ended up at this underground hotspot.
Nothing strange here you might consider, I mean, there are gay clubs the world over, right? But what makes this uncommon is that I’m not i