Leaving aside issues about gayness and whatever, anysociety where it is seen as deviant for any two human beings to hold hands in public is a pretty sick and weird society.

With those words, McGrath of Harlow has just condemned almost every Islamic country in the world.

Just being suspected of being gay in places like the Palestinian west bank, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, etc. is enough to get you killed in many of those places; often with total impunity to the killers.

About the only places in the Middle East where gays can get away with holding hands are in *parts* of Israel like Tel Aviv and Haifa. I wouldn't try it though in areas of Israel where the religious dominate (although it's much less likely that you'll be killed or that the killers will not be punished than in the Islamic countries).