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"My heart has no gender. I might fall in love with a woman or a man..." tells Jean.

He is from France, 56 years old. Divorce proceedings ensue once he realizes he isn't able to carry on with a marriage that lasted 20 years. He has three kids from this marriage. "We could not express our sexual orientation comfortably, we couldn't live the way we wanted to" he says, stating the society was more conservative in those days.

He says "the hardest part was my kids" when talking about the stressful stretch following his divorce. "They found it very hard to accept their dad was bisexual and to talk about this with their friends, in their circles".

"The whole family knows of my orientation now. Everyone accepted it with time on the condition that I would not live my private life out in the open... Not holding hands for example. Therefore, no big issues anymore. The only problem is the broken water pipe at home" he adds, laughing.

Jean tells his daughter is gay, though she avoids talking openly about the subject. "She doesn't believe she would be comfortable within the community. I know it's hard for her to openly talk about it" he says.


Gay relationships are prohibited in Morocco. The European Jean I have met in Marrakesh states gay tourists don't really have much trouble but gay Moroccans usually have to pay fines or serve jail time being mistreated in the process.

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"There is nothing else to do other than being ourselves. No need for us to be more feminine or masculine than who we are. It's good enough to be natural, the way we are... When we accept ourselves the way we are, our friends and families will follow."

A note for the reader: Jean is bisexual, therefore he is attracted to both sexes. The reason the focus was on his relationship with men is due to the acceptance issues he has suffered about those.

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