Guest Privileges

Weaving memoir with unprecedented reportage, Guest Privileges is a decade-long journey of discovery through the clandestine queer communities of the Gulf States, and into the very nature of home and belonging

When journalist Gaar Adams first arrives in the Gulf States—where four out of five residents are non-citizens, and where the penalties for queer acts include deportation, imprisonment, torture, and death—he approaches the LGBTQ+ immigrants who choose to live there with one seemingly simple question: Isn't it harder for you to make a life here?

From the UAE to Bahrain and Oman to Saudi Arabia, Adams finds himself drawn to liminal spaces. The Bengali barbershops with men laughing over Bollywood movies. The street acrobats doing parkour along the Corniche promenade, which becomes a cruising ground for solo men after midnight. To his surprise, Adams finds queer communities all across the Gulf States—clandestine, resilient, and forever welcoming.

From the uproarious Filipino salon workers throwing secret drag parties, to a courageous Pakistani farmhand helping his compatriots smuggle themselves across borders, a kaleidoscope of unforgettable characters challenges his assumptions on finding a place in the world—for others, and for himself.