On 3/12/2009, and in a landmark decision, Judge Mounir Suleiman from the Batroun court district ruled that consensual homosexual relations are not against nature and thus cannot be prosecuted under article 534 of the Penal Code in Lebanon.

Download a copy of the decision (in Arabic)
Article in BEKHSOOS (ENGLISH)

On 2/10/2009, the Ministry of Public Health - National Aids Control Program, in coordination with the World Health Organization and UNAIDS and financed through a World Bank Grant: Institutional Development Fund, a Case Study on Helem as "the First Legal, Above-Ground LGBT Organization in the MENA Region. (Download the study here)

Cruising, or picking up partners for sex, is an activity many gay men engage in.

However, cruising always carries certain risks.

If you are prepared and aware of the risks, you can make cruising a much safer experience. At Helem, we have been receiving many complaints from men who have been robbed by those they pick up in cruising areas. Unfortunately, since homosexuality is illegal in Lebanon, these men cannot rely on the law to protect them.

Tips and Advice While Cruising

National Association of Social Workers

"Reparative" and "Conversion" Therapies for Lesbians and Gay Men position Statement by: National Committee on Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Issues, NASW January 21, 2000

Almost all of the studies promoting treatment for homosexuality talk about treating people who are distressed by being homosexuals. These studies are backed up by religious and similar groups.

The president and the vice-president of the National Association for Research and Therapy for Homosexuality (NARTH) wrote in 1994:

Freud
Freud is considered by many people as the founder of modern psychiatry or at least psychoanalysis. He thought that homosexuality is just a normal variation in human sexuality and he did not think that it is a pathology. (1,2)

Other Psychoanalysts:.
Other psychoanalysts had differing views from Freud. Some of their theories stated that homosexuality was a "phobic" reaction to the other sex or a psychopathology related to the Oedipal complex. (1)

It might be illogical to mention "psychiatry" and "psychology" when talking about "homosexuality". Psychiatry is one of the medical fields that deal with health and disease whereas homosexuality is a social, political and historical issue that has nothing to do with "health". The fact remains that across the years, there has been a lot of confusion about the above relationship and for that reason only it is worth talking about this issue.

Article 534 of the Penal code criminalizes "unnatural sexual intercourse" which is interpreted as being anal sex and regarded as a behavior inherent to homosexuality. This clause stipulates the following: "Any sexual intercourse against nature is punished with up to one year of imprisonment."

State agents' behavior with LGBT individuals in Lebanon is also flawed by a string of human rights violations as well as by frequent violations of Lebanese law.

Police records of LGBT citizens

Human Dignity Campaign