Starting in Karachi, the central subject he picked was the transgender world of Kami, and her partner Sid: they were the nightclub party-givers in Karachi for the LGBTQ community, though their home world looked far from affluent. Their dream was to be married in South Africa by an Imam who apparently endorses homosexual marriage within Islam. Through them he sees the world of mostly trans life in Karachi and how they are harassed on the streets. We don't get a sense much of the hidden underground world of gay men. HE also meets Kami's friend Shahzadi who wants to get a full surgery done to remove her organ but is also unsure of the whole process. Through her, he gets to see bits of the 'hijra' community as well. It is sad to hear stories of these effeminate man in their teens, how they would be kidnapped and raped. Rizwan also decides to meet an imam and see what are his views of homosexuality, who says things as you would expect. And when Rizwan tells him about himself he gives him choice of either converting or just leave the country forms own safety. Finally he visits Lahore, where he meets a man who returned from US at the age of 35 and is running a LGBTQ health clinic but him and his staff are always at the threat of they could get killed anytime. Finally he addresses the MSM aspect (men who have sen with men). This concept is something that western world may not completely grasp, but in the small centers and the labour community, all these men live in small confined quarters and just have sex with each other to relive themselves, but would never consider themselves as gay.
Pakistan can be a country of contradictions, with sophistication and poverty at the heart of Rizwan’s discoveries. The well-off exist in a world in which homosexuality has an accepted, if mostly underground place – a scene sustained by social media – with clubs taken over by gay men and women for dancing. The choice of documentary is bold, but with a country like this, there is only so much where people will be open to willingly talk about things. Trans people are easier to interview but as we saw there were no gays or lesbians shown. It was interesting when the US returned man says that when he was back in the country, he had some of the most and best sex with straight men and that takes us back the MSM world. I have read a few books also around this, because women are not readily available for sex and men use each other and they don't feel ashamed. Of course ethyl not openly talk about it. A good thing then that there was an excellent voluntary health awareness organization handing out condoms, and generally explaining what was what. “Not as bad as I expected,” wasn’t exactly Rizwan’s conclusion, but he came away convinced that Pakistan, as a society, was actually quite gay, as well as very glad that he was coming back to life in London’s Zone Two. Because he couldn't imagine himself living in the country as an openly gay man. As a south Asian man myself, none of what I saw in this doc was new to me, but I do appreciate trying to take this perspective to a wider audience and what better than BBC as a platform. “Big, brave steps” may be being taken in the gay community there, but what a difficult, long journey lies ahead. (5.5/10)
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