Just as in the homophobic and supposedly "family values" Bible Belt where Internet porn use is off the charts, so too in Islamic Pakistan it seems that gay sex and pornography are likewise rampant. The hypocrisy in both instances is, of course, exquisite. The lesson is that the more a social or faith group feigns religiosity and would be piety, the more likely it is that it's all a crock of bullshit when one sees what happens behind closed doors. The Atlantic looks at the gay sex that some claim is rampant in Pakistan. Here are story excerpts:
Pakistan is one of the most homophobic countries in the world. Yet gay sex is apparently prevalent in the country, which is home to 183 million people, some 97% of whom are Muslim.
As the BBC's Mobeen Azhar reports in a fascinating investigation, the combination of the prevalence of gay mobile apps like Grindr and Scruff, plus the onus of arranged marriage, has made the Pakistani city of Karachi — the nation's biggest city, at nearly 24 million people — a hotbed of gay sex, even if actually maintaining a gay lifestyle is still incredibly difficult.
"[S]ome say the country is a great place to be gay — even describing the port city of Karachi as 'a gay man's paradise," Azhar writes.
Gay rights don't exist there, being openly gay is still looked down upon, gay relationships are hard to come by, and Karachi pretty much fails on every metric of gay life except for one: man-on-man sex. Karachi is home to a lot of it.
Like any other country in the world (despite Iran's claims to the contrary), Pakistan has a homosexual population. Earlier this summer, for example, the Pew Research Center found that Pakistan was simultaneously one of the most intolerant countries in the world for gay people while at the same time being one of the world leaders in searching for gay porn. "As of this writing, Pakistan is by volume the world leader for Google searches of the terms 'shemale sex,' 'teen anal sex,' and 'man fucking man,'" Mother Jones's Alex Park wrote.
But despite all this gay sex, life for gay people is still pretty awful in Karachi. That's because gay people, like straight people, crave relationships. And that's still not possible in Pakistan. Many of the men engaging in gay sex acts, Azhar explains, are married. "Sex between men will be overlooked as long as no-one feels that tradition or religion are being challenged. At the end of it all, everyone gets married to a member of the opposite sex and nothing is spoken about," a local told Azhar.
So gay relationships become an anomaly. Azhar uses the word "occasional." And its led to plots like what's currently going in China—gay men and lesbians "marrying" each other out of convenience.
Actually, Karachi doesn't sound too different from the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. Go on craigslist or any gay hook up site and you will find countless married men looking for quick nearly anonymous gay sex.
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