Film: Dangerous Living - Coming Out in the Developing World
"Dangerous Living: Coming Out in the Developing World" is a feature-length documentary that explores the immense changes that occurred for gays, lesbians and transgender people living in the Global South. In the last decade of the 20th Century, a new heightened visibility began spreading throughout the developing world and the battles between families, fundamentalist religions, and governments around sexual and gender identity had begun. But in the West, few people knew about this historic social upheaval, until 52 men on Cairo’s Queen Boat discotheque were arrested for crimes of debauchery. That explosive story focused attention to the lives and trials of gay people coming out in the developing world and the film chronicles those events.
Dangerous Living opens with one of the Cairo 52 defendant’s, Ashraf Zanati, who was tortured, humiliated, beaten and forced to spend 13 months in prison. His simple, but powerful statement sets out the basic theme for the film: “My sexuality is my own sexuality. It doesn’t belong to anybody. Not to my government, not to my brother, my sister, my family. No.”
John Scagliotti, the filmaker, will be on hand for discussion after the screening.
This event is co-sponsored by the Stonewall Center, the Pride Alliance, the Student Activity Center, and the Health Reach International Program of the Health Education Division of University Health Services.