AMMAN, Jordan — When Hassan Zeid first told his family that he was gay, the reaction was swift. His mother promptly kicked him out of the house, telling Zeid, “I am not going to have a gay son.” Forced to sleep at a motel where he was working at the time, Zeid admitted to Al-Monitor that his situation was “quite hard.” He needed to postpone his studies as he suddenly lost the means to pay for his higher education. Zeid's struggles living as a gay man in Jordan are common in a deeply conservative society and with a government unwilling to take a more active stance on this taboo issue.

Al-Monitor spoke to Musa Shteiwi, director of the Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan, who explained, “Culturally speaking, this type of sexual behavior is not accepted in the very conservative society in Jordan. People think that they have a lot more serious issues in the country, and the government should pay attention to those matters. It would be politically costly for the government to act on this issue.”

Jordan is one of few countries in the region, along with Bahrain, Iraq and Israel, where homosexual acts are not criminalized. The Jordanian government also tolerates a few cafes in Amman that are widely considered to be gay friendly. However, no anti-discrimination law specifically protecting the LGBT community has even been passed and the relationships of same-sex couples are not officially recognized.

One parliament member, who insisted on remaining anonymous due to the sensitivity of this issue, told Al-Monitor that if parliamentarians publicly defended gay rights, “they would lose their audience and supporters. Jordanian society, as any other Muslim and Arab society, considers this issue anti-religious and immoral. That is why any politicians would think twice about supporting this issue.”