Ronaldo: "Banned"

CRISTIANO RONALDO has been banned from taking his weekly trips to Morocco by Real Madrid supremo Florentino Perez, according to reports in Spain.

The Portuguese superstar, 30, makes flying visits to his kickboxer pal Badr Hari, who it has been claimed he is in a gay relationship with. And the Bernabeu president has finally snapped at Ronaldo’s constant travelling, believing that it is affecting his performances.

Ronaldo takes his £14million private jet over to North Africa after morning training, before returning the same evening.

According to El Espanol, the former Manchester United star has been making this trip every Monday to Thursday — and Perez has had enough.

He’s banned future jaunts and is sensationally counting on his friend the King of Morocco, Mohamed VI, to inform him in Ronaldo visits the country... 

The Sun. 

Please note the use of inverted commas etc.

PS Ironically of course the King Of Morocco is said to be a big ole queen.

Morocco: Shall We Burn The Homos?

Weekly magazine Maroc-Hebdo has come under fire after it ran a cover deemed by many as homophobic.

The cover depicts two men ‘intimately’ looking at each other in a swimming pool under the headline “Shall we burn homosexuals?”

“Sure it’s an individual right. But what about moral and religious values,” the sub-head added.

The magazine’s latest issue, which hit newsstands on Thursday, comes few days after the Health Ministry called on authorities to decriminalize homosexuality.

The Ministry recommended a policy change in order to reach as many members of the gay community with HIV and other STDs prevention services.

The survey has also found a difficulty in fighting against STDs among the gay community, mainly because of social stigma and criminalization of same-sex relationships.

The magazine’s cover has caused outrage on social media platforms, with many denouncing what they described as the magazine’s attempts to incite hatred.

This is not the first time the magazine runs a controversial front page cover. In 2012, it ran a front page dubbed as ‘racist’ on immigration from sub-Saharan countries with the title “the Black Peril.” ...

Morocco World News.

LOL!

PS The magazine was withdrawn from sale.

PPS The king of Morocco is a queen.

Auction: Secret

The modestly named THE PETER TATCHELL FOUNDATION are having a secret auction.

Win a free holiday in gay-loving Marrakesh, flights and bail not included.

Oops!

Thanks to Peter Tatchell Watch.

PS How is an auction - where the richest wins - a socialist way of doing this?

Surely it is time to resign, Pete?

Except you can't resign from a one-man FUNDATION you made up...

Update...

Oops.

Oh, and can you publish your accounts, Pete?

Some of us have been waiting to see them for some time...

Travel Tips: Morocco

The Guardian.

As ever, just because a country has laws against homosexuality, it doesn't mean they are routinely enforced. *

The shocking case of Ray Cole and Jamal Wald Nass was an exception, not the rule.

* This is a widespread canard in both the gay and straight media.

Both from just yesterday; The Spread Of Gay Rights, The Economist - which implies you get stoned to death for being gay in some countries cause they haven't embraced neo-liberal globalisation.

And When In Rome, Think Of Gay People In Iran, Libby Purves, The Times.

No serious observer believes men get arrested, never mind executed, in Iran, just for being gay.

If this were true they must have the most incompetent police force since the Keystone Cops.

Ray Cole: I'm Still Waiting

Respect where it's due, this interview with Ray Cole by Patrick Strudwick does foreground the plight of his Moroccan lover, Jamal Wald Nass - released two days later, but pending an appeal - a man all but invisible in most other accounts

Jamal Wald Nass: Whatever Happened To Him?

An Englishman, Ray Cole, and a young Moroccan, Jamal, are walking in the streets of the Gueliz district in Marrakech. They are not doing anyone any harm.

Some passing police think otherwise: they arrest them and accuse them of homosexuality. A judge then sends them to prison. The proof of their “crime” is the text messages and private photos that the police found in their mobile phones, which show their intimate relationship.

This scene, which might shock people in some western countries, is commonplace. It happens several times a day without the media taking any notice.* What changes everything is Cole’s nationality. He is British. And Britain is not just any country. The image of Morocco, a land of tolerance and generosity (according to the advertising slogans), is very much at stake here. There is danger in sight: a disaster for the emerging tourism sector.

Quick, quick, let’s cover it up, let’s release the Englishman, we’ll deal with the Moroccan later, he’s not so important.

The Moroccan authorities took a while to react. And that they eventually did so was because Cole’s family and friends rallied round strongly on his behalf and began to create a fuss about his case in the international media.

And Jamal, the young Moroccan? What’s happening to him? 

Abdellah Taïa, Guardian Online.

* Be interested to hear if anyone has evidence of this sort of thing.

Morocco: Unbound

A British man flew home from Marrakech last week after being jailed for 'homosexual acts'. There was a time though when Morocco was renowned as a haven for gay Americans and Britons who fled restrictions in their own countries to take advantage of its relaxed atmosphere...

BBC News Magazine follow in the dusty footprints of Bowles, Burroughs, Ginsberg, Orton et al.

Although some think the writers were rebelling against a soulless, suburban McCarthyite America, [John] Hopkins says it was more straightforward. "They were after boys and drugs. That's what drew them. The Moroccans were charming, attractive, intelligent and tolerant. They had to put up with a lot from us."

So why did Morocco, an ostensibly devout Islamic country, allow homosexuality to thrive? The author Barnaby Rogerson says it is a society that is full of paradoxes.

"It is... a place where all the four different cornerstones of culture: Berber-African, Mediterranean, Arabic or Islamic, share an absolute belief in the abundant sexuality of all men and women, who are charged with a sort of personal volcano of 'fitna', which threatens family, society and state with sexually derived chaos at any time," he says. The word fitna, he suggests, "means something like 'charm, allure, enchantment, temptation, dissent, unrest, riot, rebellion' or all of these at the same time."

Joe Orton, pictured in 1967, with a helpful young tour-guide.

That intro is so silly though. 

Morocco is still a haven for gay American and British tourists.

The arrests of Ray Cole and his often forgotten friend Jamal Wald Nass for 'homosexual acts' last week were exceptional.

That is why they - or rather the British Cole's - were so newsworthy. 

It is ridiculous to suggest men are routinely arrested just for having gay sex, or that there is some homophobic clampdown going on. 

Can you tell me the last time a British or American gay tourist was arrested?

Ray Cole: British Father

Great news, British father, Ray Cole!

Hopefully they freed your 'friend', Jamal Wald Nass, too, but everyone seems to have forgotten about him.

Presumably on account of him not being British or a father.

Or white.

Daily Mail: He may be gay, but he's our gay Briton!

The Sun: Well done, our plucky gay Brit!

Update: Nass has apparently now been freed on bail - let me know if you see any mentions of this in the UK media.

Morocco: Unclear

BBC News.

Still, let's not be jumping to any conclusions about this...

Morocco: Bound

A gay British man has been arrested in Morocco and charged with committing homosexual acts.

Ray Cole, 69, a retired magazine publisher from Deal in Kent, was on holiday in Marrakesh last month to visit a Moroccan man, Jamal Jam Wald Nass.

However, on September 18 the pair were approached at a bus stop by police officers, and were detained on the grounds of suspected homosexuality.

Pink News.

Well, this is most odd.

Fagburn thought the main reason most tourists went to Morocco was to commit 'homosexual acts' with the locals.

Anyway, apropos of absolutely nothing, here's a photo of King Mohammed of Morocco holidaying in Paris with a young friend...

Morocco: Bound

RABAT (Reuters) - Organizers of an all-gay cruise on Saturday blamed Moroccan officials for the cancellation of what would have been the first visit of its kind to a Muslim country, but the tourism minister denied the ship was banned and said its passengers were welcome.

Cruise liner Holland America Line and trip organizer RSVP Vacations told the 2,100 holiday-makers aboard the MS Nieuw Amsterdam ship that the July 1 visit to Casablanca had been cancelled.

"Our port agent in Casablanca has advised us that authorities in Morocco have -- despite previous confirmations -- now denied our scheduled visit," the two companies said in a letter tweeted to news organizations by passengers of the ship.

"For all of us, this is a very disappointing development," they added. "It was ultimately the decision by local authorities in Morocco that has necessitated us to adjust our plans."

The Casablanca visit was supposed to be the first and the only non-European leg of a week-long journey for the cruise liner, which sailed from Barcelona on Friday with mostly American and European passengers.

Morocco's Tourism Minister Lahcen Haddad said no official decision had been made to prevent the ship from stopping in Morocco.

Reuters.
So basically this didn't happen.
Thanks for that.
Be a bit tricky seeing as the king of Morocco is a big ole queen, and it's been a gay holiday destination of choice since the 60s.