Guest Privileges
Queer Lives and Finding Home in the Middle EastSelect a format:
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Summary
An intimate and illuminating account of queer lives and migration, homemaking and community in the Gulf, from a brilliant new voice in narrative non-fiction
'An eye-opening tour de force' ALEX ESPINOZA
'Exhilarating' SUSAN ORLEAN
'Tender and insightful' MOHAMED TONSY
Upon moving to the Gulf States – where penalties for queer acts include deportation, imprisonment, torture and death – Gaar Adams wants to understand why LGBTQ+ migrants might choose to live amid such peril. He begins riskily gathering interviews outside the tightly controlled state media, leading with what he thinks is a simple question:
Isn't it harder for you to make a life here?
But as unforgettable residents share a kaleidoscope of stories – from uproarious Filipino salon workers throwing secret drag parties to a courageous Pakistani farmhand who helps his compatriots smuggle themselves across borders – deeper questions and fault lines begin to emerge alongside the halting steps into Gaar’s own clandestine relationship.
Weaving intimate and illuminating memoir with unprecedented reportage, Guest Privileges is a decade-long journey of dislocation – not just through the Gulf States, but into the very nature of home, belonging and how we form a life and community.
'Vividly reported and luminously reflective' NADIA OWUSU
'I was captivated and carried' ADAM ZMITH
‘Adams gives a voice to a queer community we hear much about, but little from…offering hope in a world witnessing the concerted rollback of queer rights' HUGO GREENHALGH
'An eye-opening tour de force' ALEX ESPINOZA
'Exhilarating' SUSAN ORLEAN
'Tender and insightful' MOHAMED TONSY
Upon moving to the Gulf States – where penalties for queer acts include deportation, imprisonment, torture and death – Gaar Adams wants to understand why LGBTQ+ migrants might choose to live amid such peril. He begins riskily gathering interviews outside the tightly controlled state media, leading with what he thinks is a simple question:
Isn't it harder for you to make a life here?
But as unforgettable residents share a kaleidoscope of stories – from uproarious Filipino salon workers throwing secret drag parties to a courageous Pakistani farmhand who helps his compatriots smuggle themselves across borders – deeper questions and fault lines begin to emerge alongside the halting steps into Gaar’s own clandestine relationship.
Weaving intimate and illuminating memoir with unprecedented reportage, Guest Privileges is a decade-long journey of dislocation – not just through the Gulf States, but into the very nature of home, belonging and how we form a life and community.
'Vividly reported and luminously reflective' NADIA OWUSU
'I was captivated and carried' ADAM ZMITH
‘Adams gives a voice to a queer community we hear much about, but little from…offering hope in a world witnessing the concerted rollback of queer rights' HUGO GREENHALGH
Reviews
Beautifully written, meticulously researched, and deeply felt, Guest Privileges is an exhilarating journey through unfamiliar terrain. It is a story of queerness in the context of the Middle East, but it will be instantly recognizable to anyone who has yearned to feel at home.
Susan Orlean, author of THE ORCHID THIEF