The attention being paid to Pakistan this week made me wonder what the situation is for gays in Pakistan.

A few months ago, I saw Jihad for Love, the documentary on being gay and Muslim, which included scenes of a hot underground drag party in Pakistan. It was interesting, because I think people tend to stereotype Muslim countries as all being the same - people think that if they kill gay people in Iran, then they likely kill gay people in every Muslim country.

But just as the laws in liberal Sweden are very different from the conservative United States, laws and living in the Islamic world can likewise vary.

Sodomy is illegal in Pakistan, and those arrested can serve up to two years in prison.  But some gays live with their lovers in Islamabad and Karachi and in 2005 an Afghan refugee married a Pakistani boy in a “wedding” ceremony decried by locals.

A Pakistani told the BBC that he was out to his family and felt more comfortable being gay in Pakistan than in the West:

What is perhaps closer to the truth is that overt expression of sexuality itself - both gay and straight - is a taboo matter in Pakistani society.

But whereas heterosexual courting and coupling is all too obvious, gay socialising can take place without attracting as much attention - with brazen abandon in a society where many forms of overt physical and emotional intimacy between members of the same gender are tolerated and even admired.

I’d love people with first-hand experience of being gay in Pakistan to weigh in. Does it feel safe on a daily basis? Were things better under Bhutto or under Musharraf?