Where Are You Going, Habibi?

Reviewed for the Amor Universal Love Project Blog.

"Where Are You Going, Habibi?" is a 2015 German film directed by Tor Iben. The movie is a comedy-drama that tells the story of Ibrahim, a young man of Turkish descent who falls in love with Alexander, a German wrestler and criminal who is straight. Despite the challenges, an unusual friendship and mutual respect develop between them.

The film stars Cem Alkan as Ibrahim and Martin Walde as Alexander. It explores themes of love, crime, and an impossible friendship that transcends the characters' backgrounds and orientations.

Review: Where Are You Going, Habibi? (2015)

Where Are You Going, Habibi? (Wo willst du hin, Habibi?), directed by Tor Iben, is a poignant German film that delves into the complexities of identity, love, and cultural intersections. Set against the backdrop of Berlin, the narrative follows Ibrahim (Ibo), a young man of Turkish descent navigating the challenges of being gay in a conservative family while grappling with societal prejudices.

Ibo's life takes an unexpected turn when he meets Alexander (Ali), a blond, blue-eyed German show wrestler with a criminal past. Their relationship evolves from a chance encounter to a deep, albeit complicated, friendship. While Ibo harbors romantic feelings, Ali's straight orientation adds layers of tension and introspection to their bond. The film masterfully portrays this dynamic, highlighting the nuances of unrequited love and the boundaries of male intimacy.

Cem Alkan's portrayal of Ibo is both heartfelt and authentic, capturing the character's internal conflicts and aspirations. Martin Walde's Ali complements this with a performance that balances toughness with vulnerability. Their on-screen chemistry brings depth to the narrative, making their interactions both compelling and relatable.

Director Tor Iben, known for his works like The Visitor (Cibrâil) and The Passenger, continues his exploration of LGBTQ+ themes with sensitivity and insight. In Where Are You Going, Habibi?, he addresses issues of racism, cultural identity, and the immigrant experience in Germany, weaving them seamlessly into the storyline without overt didacticism.

While the film touches on serious themes, it maintains a light-hearted tone, offering moments of humor and warmth. The soundtrack by Bartosz Bludau further enhances the viewing experience, adding an emotional resonance to key scenes.

In essence, Where Are You Going, Habibi? is a touching exploration of love, identity, and the human desire for connection. It's a testament to the complexities of modern relationships and the courage it takes to live one's truth. For those interested in stories that challenge societal norms and celebrate authenticity, this film is a must-watch.

The movie has a runtime of 1 hour and 19 minutes and was produced with an estimated budget of €60,000. It has been available for streaming on various platforms, including Filmzie, Plex, and JustWatchTV.

Looking forward to your comments and questions below ;-)

more info at

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4064498/

https://www.filmaffinity.com/es/film721124.html

Gay Superheroes 2012

It was about time to come out of the closet for DC and Marvel superheroes. The first one was Northstar from Marvel a not-so-popular, Canadian and not American one, of course now upgraded to be an X-Men. 

So, it is time for   DC to choose one and give the audiences a handsome open-minded hero that will keep sales in the lgbt market running and may help things get netter for the young ones coming out.  The best of all we´ll see gay kisses on superheroe movies from now on.

Senator Gay in "bad strategy"

Roy Ashburn has 55 years, is the father of four children and was until earlier this week openly anti-gay. Now a U.S. senator in California, who opposed for 14 years for measures to give rights to homosexuals, assumed his homosexuality after being caught driving under influence of alcohol, walk away from a gay bar.

In an interview with KERN, Senator confessed: "I'm gay!" After so many years to vote against legislative amendments Roy Ashburn justify that their actions did not reflect the "internal conflict" in which he lived, but what the voters wanted him to do. Ashburn already vetoed this year one day to celebrate a gay rights activist Harvey Milk and even vetoed laws against discrimination and recognition of homosexual marriage to be celebrated outside the State of California.

The consequences of disclosure already begun to feel, Ashburn has said he will not re-apply for any political position.

RON YOSSEF gay rabbi defends adoption for gays/lesbians

Rabbi Burstein insists that he is not legitimising homosexuality within the religious community.

“Of course we believe it is a problem and that the solution should be therapy, but there are always going to be a certain number of religious homosexuals who have tried and failed to change. What about them?”

While it is identified with the national-religious community in Israel, PUAH also receives halachic guidance from many of the senior Charedi rabbis, including Yosef Shalom Elyashiv and Ovadia Yossef. Rabbi Burstein consulted with both on the homosexual issue. After receiving the rabbis’ authorisation, the next step is to consult with a number of leading children’s psychologists in order to ascertain that children born into such a framework can grow up happily and normally.

Rabbi Ron Yossef, who leads Hod, a support group for religious homosexuals, says that such marriages already exist.

“It is done with complete transparency. Both partners are fully aware of everything and the objective is to have and raise children according to halachah.”

He says that in most of the cases, the wife is an older woman who has failed to find a partner, and so is willing to enter such a marriage in order to have a child. In a minority of the cases the wife is a lesbian.

A don't smoke campaign .

Insert a phallic object in his mouth for a guy, that's still a little queer ...

In any case, the ironic conclusion of a satirical website false American, The Onion. The site has been the specialty of diverting the major topics of debate at the time, and is generally well done.

It's still the case here, with a false public information campaign, and a fake news flash (video below), inspired by the release of a member firm of Tom Coburn, a Republican senator very religious Oklahoma. On September 21, to oppose pornography among youth, it has been hypothesized that questionable "movies make porno gay!

Absurdity for absurdity, so making gay porn, why not smoking? And to scare American youth, who often use the word "gay" as an insult, easy, trying to make them believe that smoking is gay.

Ce week-end, un match de Coupe de Foot Loisir devait opposer le Paris Foot Gay à l'équipe de Créteil Bébel. Mais la veille du match, les visiteurs ont envoyé un message indiquant qu'ils refusaient de jouer la rencontre : «Désolé, mais par rapport au nom de votre équipe et conformément aux principes de notre équipe, qui est une équipe de musulmans pratiquants, nous ne pouvons jouer contre vous, nos convictions sont de loin plus importantes qu'un simple match de foot, encore une fois excusez-nous de vous avoir prévenu si tard».

Le club Paris Foot Gay a aussitôt publié un communiqué dénonçant l'homophobie latente : «Cette équipe a tout simplement refusé de jouer contre des homosexuels. Rappelons que le Paris Foot Gay n'est pas un club communautariste. Il est ouvert à tous, hétéros comme homos, heureux de lutter ensemble contre les préjugés et les discriminations. Au sein de notre équipe se côtoient des blacks, des blancs, des beurs, toutes religions confondues. Il est symptomatique de constater que les regroupements communautariste de certains clubs ne choquent personne, mais que la simple évocation du mot "Gay" dans le milieu du football n'inspire que le mépris ou la peur d'être mis face à autrui.» Le club parisien a saisi la Commission Football Loisirs, organisatrice de la compétition, qui s'est déclaré «stupéfaite» et a convoqué le club cristolien, contre lequel des sanctions pourraient être prises.

Afficher ou pas ? Paris Foot Gay avec la devise "be yourself" compte avec des joueurs de la religion musulmane.

Coming Out in Middle School By BENOIT DENIZET-LEWIS

original post at NYTIMES

Austin didn’t know what to wear to his first gay dance last spring. It was bad enough that the gangly 13-year-old from Sand Springs, Okla., had to go without his boyfriend at the time, a 14-year-old star athlete at another middle school, but there were also laundry issues. “I don’t have any clean clothes!” he complained to me by text message, his favored method of communication..

When I met up with him an hour later, he had weathered his wardrobe crisis (he was in jeans and a beige T-shirt with musical instruments on it) but was still a nervous wreck. “I’m kind of scared,” he confessed. “Who am I going to talk to? I wish my boyfriend could come.


” But his boyfriend couldn’t find anyone to give him a ride nor, Austin explained, could his boyfriend ask his father for one. “His dad would give him up for adoption if he knew he was gay,” Austin told me. “I’m serious. He has the strictest, scariest dad ever. He has to date girls and act all tough so that people won’t suspect.”

Love Makes a Family

from the blog of ACLU

Martin called the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) when John and James, who had become bonded with Martin and his partner after years in their care, were about to become free for adoption. That meant, under Florida law, the state would have to seek a new family that would be eligible to adopt the boys. James was an infant when placed in Martin’s home and this is the only family he has ever known. John was four at the time and had already suffered the loss of being separated from his biological family. He was so traumatized when he arrived in Martin’s home that he didn’t speak at all. Just when he was finally overcoming that loss and beginning to bond with his new family, he could have to be uprooted once again. The thought that John would have to be put through the loss of another family was unbearable to Martin and his partner. Martin asked the ACLU if there was anything we could do.

We were committed to doing everything possible to do away with this destructive law, and of course we were moved by Martin’s story. So we filed a petition to adopt on his behalf in Florida juvenile court. We argued that the gay exclusion cannot be a basis to deny Martin’s petition because that law is unconstitutional. John and James were represented by separate counsel who argued that the law violates their constitutional rights as well.

to read thw whole story get the complete article at
http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/gen/40464res20090717.html

The Beautiful way of the Samurai

During the research for the Universal Love Time Line that is exhibited together with the artworks I have found the most interesting, thrilling and sweet love stories. Tales and biographies about samurai homosexuality confirm for me, that sex is one of the greatest expressions of affection, courage and partnership. Something very far from just the oversold pleasure or guilt promises we daily consume in the western world.

Known also as wakashudo, “the way of the youth”, was a practice engaged in by all members of the samurai class, from lowliest warrior to highest lord. It has been said that it would never have been asked of a daimyo, “lord”, why he took boys as lovers, but why he didn’t. This last is not a question that would have troubled, for example, the three great shoguns who unified Japan, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, or Tokugawa Ieyasu, nor for that matter Miyamoto Musashi, the author of “The Book of Five Rings.” All about it at

http://www.gay-art-history.org/gay-history/gay-customs/japan-samurai-male-love/japan-samurai-homosexual-shudo.html

Gay Sex with the Priest

By MICHELLE NICOLOSI
from SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Albert Green vividly remembers the first time he saw the home of the Rev. Ed Olszewski, the priest who cared for him when he was 11.

"The first day, I was so excited. I went running through the church. Everything was so pretty -- it was like a mansion. It had 12 bedrooms and six bathrooms. It was humongous," said Green, 46, who lives in Lynnwood.

Green remembers the mysterious chute that dropped dirty clothes right down to the laundry room, the giant bowl filled with silver dollars and the cool stuff in the priest's bedroom: a little fridge with soft drinks in it, a popcorn machine, the soft rug in front of his bed.

He also remembers that Olszewski didn't wait long to establish that their relationship would be sexual.

Green said that first night, they went to Olszewski's bedroom and drank some wine. Then Olszewski took out some Vaseline and "he was rubbing it on me, on my front and my back. He put it up into my rectum. I felt something really weird. I just turned over and felt something else go inside of it."

While the priest had sex with him, Green said, he was looking over at the bowl full of shiny coins, thinking "all this money. He's going to give it to me," Green said.

The complete Article and photos at

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/187183_albert20.html

Tintin serait-il gay vraiment gay?

Matthiew Parris le journaliste vedette du quotidien britannique Times a révélé  que l’égérie du célèbre Hergé dans un article intitulé “ Bien sur que Tintin est gay, demandez à Milou”. Il s’appuie en effet sur plusieurs indices des plus convaincants.
En effet, le journaliste en question lui aussi gay d’ailleurs, d’après Matthew l’orientation sexuelle de tintin tape à l’oeil rien que de voir ses amis, sa façon de s’habiller et le fait qu’il ne s’est jamais marié.
Un jeune homme sans expérience, androgyne, avec une houppe blonde, des pantalons bizarres et une écharpe, profession : espion, qui emménage dans le château de son meilleur ami, un marin peu plus age et aussi un solitaire.
Le célèbre personnage d’Hergé la dimension sexuelle est oubliée. Tintin est une créature dont le sexe n’est jamais défini, l’homosexualité, c’est le choix d’une pratique sexuelle explicite.
Nous sommes tous a l’attente de nouveau film de Steve Spielberg pour Noël – « Les aventures de Tintin » – dont tous les personnages sont des enfants avec l’orientation sexuelle est soigneusement cachée jusque la après ses 80 ans.  Nous aimerions savoir l’opinion d’un public averti…
À vos yeux est-il vraiment gay ?

I wanna be a Macho Man!

La “representación” camp de la masculinidad en la identidad gay-leather

por Alfonso Ceballos Muñoz

Desde los años 50 se venía fraguando la imagen del “macho” promocionada por los medios de comunicación de masas y convirtiéndose así en toda una convención cultural. Dicha convención reside en el cambio cultural respecto al cuerpo masculino producido en los Estados Unidos durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial y los años de la post-guerra. La exhibición de poder, vigor, fuerza y masculinidad agresiva favorecía una imagen nacional que regresaba al antiguo mito de los conquistadores del oeste: hombres rudos, fornidos y arrojados que con trabajo y sudor consiguen levantar un país. Michael Bronski lo especifica de esta forma:

La presentación del cuerpo masculino en la cultura norteamericana comenzó a cambiar después

de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Los hombres que regresaban de la contienda se sentían más a gusto con su aspecto físico. Las fotos en revistas como Life y Look mostraban soldados y marines (casi todos de raza blanca) informalmente descamisados o haciendo gala de cuerpos musculosos trabajando en la base o en el frente. Después de la guerra, que los hombres cubrieran sus torsos en la playa era una práctica aceptada, moda que cambió cuando las fuerzas armadas, en un intento por conservar su personal, distribuyeron sólo bañadores para sus tropas. (cfr. Bronski 1998:89).

Desde entonces, la publicidad, el cine, las artes figurativas y la música contribuyeron a construir una imagen consciente de la masculinidad, al poner el énfasis sobre todo en códigos heteropatriarcalmente asumidos y al elaborarlos con patrones comportamentales marcados como viriles. La masculinidad se leerá por lo tanto como “no-debilidad” y, así asociada a valores tales como la fuerza, el control, la impasibilidad y la agresividad.

Son los Estados Unidos, que no tienen rival cultural, los que indiscutiblemente han impuesto al resto del mundo su ideal de masculinidad. Como ejemplos significativos nos remontaremos en el tiempo hasta tres iconos culturales norteamericanos que han servido de modelos cooperando en la construcción de esta hipervirilidad y que posteriormente fraguarán en la identidad gay-leather: Marlon Brando en la películaSalvaje, el vaquero de Marlboro y, ya en los años 80, Arnold Schwarznegger como Terminator.

artículo completo en

http://www.hartza.com/machoman.htm

Are Homosexuals Gay?

Absolutely no comment.

This is the type of picture you can interpret in many ways.
It reminds me of the West Side Story song: "I feel pretty"

what´s your opinion?

THE QUEER PEACE

The library of green magazine issues just got bigger. Genre, a US magazine for gay men recently published their very own 'green issue'. Not many people get to say they bought a gay magazine for the articles, but I just did. I have to say, I'm really impressed. The green theme actually shows up throughout the magazine (unlike some of the other green issue contenders in which a couple articles and a page on green styles seems to suffice). For instance, did you know that C-N2 offers a line of bamboo underwear, including briefs, tanks, boxer briefs and trunks? Finally, some cool stuff for guys. Lots of other green products, feature articles, and even some humorous green bashing to round things out a bit. Kudos to the good green gays!

It makes me guess it is the Sustainable Development week what the Queers are doing now to make earth clean?

Nowhere without my Parents, ShortFilm by Vicente Bonet Spain

James Asal Jr: Creator of Adam and Andy

By Antonio Capurro - Gay Agenda

I learned about Adam and Andy 6 years ago when I was doing my research about gay comics online. At that time I was working in Lima, the capital of Peru, managing the section called “Lima Gay” for a very open minded web site. When I saw Adam and Andy I fell in love with the likable characters. Since I was a boy, I very much enjoyed reading my favorites such as Superman, Batman or Spiderman. They fulfilled my fantasies of superheroes because even when I would dream, those were the gay males in my mind and I always wished I could have that kind of story. Finally, I found Adam and Andy and thier creator James Asal Jr.

I never imagined that years later I would have the opportunity to interview him. Going into an artist’s world is always to a new opportunity to discover a fascinating and powerful mind. Artist tend to havesensitive souls that carry a huge spectrum of ideas.

James is a skillful, talented and very nice man. A person committed to his ideas and art. He is a cartoonist, an illustrator, a gay artist who got the inspiration and the courage to give us a wonderful gay comic.

Find more of Adam and Andy here: www.adamandandy.com
Interview at . http://www.gayagenda.com/2008/11/meet-james-asal-jr-the-creator-of-adam-and-andy-a-gay-comic/

About LGBT Marriage and the American Society

Love and Masculinity

Image from the Exhibition by: Carlos Gutierrez Solana
It is a good opportunity to re-take this blog born from the universal love project, thinking about the Masculine Role in contemporary societies.

A role that has been changing very slowly. A "comfortable" role for most men who apparently get the power, the money and the rights in most cultures and who have never questioned it or re-examined it.

From here and with the basis of the historical research on sexual diversity I extend an invitation to think about a new masculinity that may open the opportunity to affection, vulnerability, shared power and opportunities। A masculinity that is not afraid of sharing the privileges and that aims to build societies hand by hand with femininity and all other possible gender identities.