Try being a bisexual occultist anywhere Islam entrenched itself in government.
I might as well commit suicide if I have to go there. If they find out, I would be stoned probably immediately. Or, I've got a collection of pictures of what they do using knives - "Et tu Brute" style.
I would consider going to a Sufi controlled area. At least they have some semblance of sense.
Sufis are still fairly right-wing, except maybe the hippy westerners who go spin themselves doing the semih in the unofficial mevlevi lodges in Yelova or Konya. I've done the one in Konya actually, it's a great musical experience.
Most people who were old enough to fight in WWII are in wheelchairs or nursing homes now. Hardly comparable to Islamic regimes stoning homosexuals now.
Meanwhile, Turkish men are the most metrosexual in the world, and let's just say it 's easier to get laid in Taksim than it is in the Castro. I feel that Istanbul is actually a far gayer city than San Francisco, but everybody stays in the closet in order to survive.
You have a funny concept of free.
If I am not free to be exactly who I am, then I am not free.
If I am forced to follow a religion under penalty of death, I am not free.
If I am forced to not leave that religion under penalty of death, I am not free.
If I am forced to be straight, I am not free.
A free nation allows everybody to be free, not just the mainstream.
I've heard that from a couple Gay friends actually. They've had a better time in Istanbul's GLBT scene than in the US (though they are Latino in origin and I've heard American Gay culture has a bit of a race problem)
The entire point of democracy is it allows commoners to decide regulation, and you bet that if there was ever a true democracy in the Arab world, gays won't be welcome in it either.
If I get caught sucking dick in a Muslim country, I die.
If I suck dick in the west, maybe I get my own dick sucked in return.
Tell me again about the freedom of the islamic world.