Just a dance?

Various (Initial version by Silje), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The map is Wikipedia's current assessment of world homosexuality laws. Grey means same sex relationships are not recognised. Blue means recognised, with darker blue meaning more rights.  Brown / yellow and darker are places where same sex expression is limited or penalised.   

I had met another man from one of the countries along the far coast of the eastern Mediterranean.  Hewas young, worked in a scientific profession but categorically did not want to dance with men as a means of learning the dance.  He had, apparently some other, considerably more conservative beliefs. I had been very surprised. 

- There are a lot of people like that, said a friend from a slightly more liberal country in the same area, who dances.  

- Is homosexuality in your country illegal?

- Yes. But people turn a blind eye, as long as you keep it private.  

- So if you were gay you couldn't tell anyone?

- No! Apart from anything else, your family would disown you, quite likely kill you.

- But it's not a choice, being gay, is it?

- No, but many still think it is. Or at least it can be "controlled".

- Is your family traditional?

- Yes.  I had to go to the mosque every day.

- I had to go to chapel every day at boarding school. And church on Sundays in the holidays

We smiled at each other, laughed in shared recognition.

-  I was religious until my mid twenties.  Perhaps less from belief, more from fear.

- From fear?

- That God would smite me for example.  

I remembered that feeling.

- Religion controls people, he said, voicing my thoughts at that moment.

- Do you think there are a lot of people in that area like that, believing through fear?

- Yes, a lot of people adhere to religion through tradition, habit, fear, family pressure more than belief.

- So how is it that you have changed?

- When I started dancing tango.  I began to travel, to meet people from other cultures.