I arrived in the city during the height of summer to take a section editor job at a large glossy magazine. Like Las Vegas, Dubai was built in a desert from nothing and like Vegas, Dubai (in the Arab world anyway) is known as sin city.ĭespite being conservative by Western standards, this is where alcohol and sex-starved Arabs flock to in droves to get their fix - and that includes the gays. Nothing strange here you might think, I mean, there are gay clubs the world over, right? But what makes this unusual is that I’m not in the relatively liberal West I’m in Dubai.Ī province of the United Arab Emirates governed by a dictatorial royal family and a tourism hotspot attracting the gaze of the world thanks to its constant sunshine and headline-grabbing world’s “biggest” and “tallest” buildings, shopping malls and man-made islands. It’s 2am and the club is packed with a sea of sweaty, gay men getting their groove on to a Madonna classic - and I’m one of them.Īfter an all-day drinking session, followed by a spot of impromptu karaoke, during which I made friends with a lovely lesbian couple (we bonded over our love of ‘80s power ballads) I’ve ended up at this underground hotspot. SPEAKERS boom in the darkly lit, smoky room.
