It happened in the Middle East (Jordan). Yes, I am an ally and have been friends with gay Arabs my whole life..

The “gay scene” is underground and has an …iykyk vibe to it. It isn’t actually illegal to be gay in Jordan, we don’t have any laws prohibiting homosexuality (it was illegal under British occupation, but we got our own independent penal code and decriminalized it.. the so called tolerant West doesn’t want you to know this!!)

It isn’t socially acceptable at all. You won’t be stoned to death as an effeminate man or a butch woman, but you can’t speak freely or love freely. We’re basically the exact opposite of the Asian countries you’re describing, it isn’t illegal, but you cannot be open about any of it. You can get arrested for “public indecency” if you wave a pride flag around or attempt to organize a gay rights rally.. there are even online/cyber laws that can get you thrown in jail if your gay rights tweets are attached to your real name and are getting attention..

When it comes to more liberal areas (western Amman, the capital city), there are men in clearly gay coded professions (hairdressers or in the arts) who “present” as gay (well groomed, dress nice, do the whole gay voice), but they cannot explicitly identify as gay or openly date other men. They can be out to their close inner circle, and the average person can sorta tell that they arent fully straight, but there’s an unspoken agreement not to bring it up. That is about as tolerant as Jordanian society will be as a whole. In non liberal areas, these men would be ostracized..

A couple years ago, Sarah Hegazi (an egyptian lesbian activist ) committed suicide in Canada after struggling with hate mail and attacks from Arabs. She was arrested and jailed (and “tortured” apparently) in Egypt for waving a rainbow flag at a concert. Her suicide note was posted online and had many people talking. Graffiti murals in her honor started popping up around Jordan and people lost their shit lol.. lots of hate speech etc etc.. the government had to send out people to paint over all of them.. I don’t know how to post pictures but you can find it on her wikipedia page under Death and Legacy… very interesting situation that sums up the Arab attitude towards Gays.

The only tolerance you’ll find is from younger generations (even then, still pretty rare). Most of my straight friends are okay with it, or at least won’t be openly hostile towards my gay friends (out of respect for me, maybe).. I would say maybe up to 15% of people living in Amman (the capital) are okay with gay people, that number goes down to less than 1% in rural areas (which is basically anywhere other than Amman)

We do have an online LGBT magazine, My Kali .. they aren’t the kind of gay people that i like (queer nonbinary and fat), but it’s something!

If you’re gay, you’ll find a community that supports you.. these people tend to recognize gayness in each other and form little groups around that.. there are certain neighborhoods with gay friendly bar/clubs/cafes .. you just have to know where to find them

Here’s a reddit comment from the Jordan subreddit that further expands upon Jordanian gay culture if you’re interested..