Upvoted for the reference <| sep |> I ' d argue a lot of it is due to the lack of education in the MENA region about homosexuality . Most taboo topics tend to get a certain amount of discussion time whenever something happens that causes them to become headlines . This one , however doesn ' t . There ' s a certain script for a certain opinion you ' re expected to follow on this particular topic ala god hates gays and there ' s very rarely any follow up argument or backlash . Most other issues usually get dealt by society by coming into the spotlight where people tend to push back against a certain regressive behavior Like Women ' s rights , for example . That ' s the only way any issue gets dealt with , by forcing people to learn about it . And unless this happens for homosexuality , the Middle Eastern cycle of homophobia would never end . Mind you , I ' m a straight male living there , so this doesn ' t effect me in the slightest , but it bothers me quite a bit when I throw the What impact does this have on your life ? argument and it bounces back . Even worse is when I mention that the same people who share these opinions with you in the west are the ones that tend to hate and demonize Muslims and Islam and depict us as terrorists , so ya sure you wanna sure their opinion ? And I don ' t get an answer .