Wow. It's a little strange to be back. But seeing Oman back in the international news over the 'The Outsiders' homosexuality cover story in The Week, and the not surprising news that the Government shut them down and are prosecuting the editor and journalist under Omans draconian press laws, prompted me to reactivate Muscat Confidential.

My old post from 2010, where I published an interview with a gay expat living in Oman - here's the link exclusive interview being gay in Oman - has being getting a lot of traffic lately, as searches prompted by the article find it. Looking back at that post now I'm still proud of it. It holds true today.

I was frankly amazed when I read about The Week publishing something on being gay. OK, not what I would call a very good story, starting out by essentially inferring the gentleman was somehow made gay by being molested as an 8 year old. But I quibble. It was a very brave thing to put on the cover. Given the tremendous homophobic feelings in public Oman society, the editor must have know what a shit-storm it would generate. I hope it was deliberate.

Oman is far from alone in having anti-homosexual laws, let's face it. (Russia anyone?) But I do wish people would look at the science, which clearly shows that being sexually attracted to the same gender is fixed at birth. Which makes sense, because in this world who would choose to be gay? But as with all bigotry, be it a hatred of skin colour, or gender, or race, or even being say, a Muslim in the West, this too is rooted in fear of the unknown and ignorance. Try being gay in most places in this world, and you're in for a bad time in the public sphere.

So while I think criminalisation of what 2 consenting adults do with each other in private is always a dumb idea in my opinion, this is about reporting, not where someone sticks their dick. If the Sultan of Oman wants to make such sexual acts criminal, i guess His Majesty is entitled to do so, with laws being inhumane and unenforceable not being a problem with Oman's laws in other areas either. But to criminalise a news report on what is actually real, something that is true, well, that's really stupid. I didn't realise pandering to the ignorant and the bigoted was the 'for public consumption' official Ministry of information policy.
Blindfolds all round when it comes to homosexuality in The Sultanate I guess. No change there.
For goodness sake, let's not allow reality to impinge on our newspapers. We might have to face reality. And talk about it rationally. Never really a strong suit of Oman society.

Enforcement of our strong cultural traditions of intellectual denial and the defence of ignorance continue unabated. Business as usual.

So that's alright then.