Homosexuality in Egypt

"Homosexuality is a social taboo among Egyptians of both faiths and only in recent years have fiction and movies included gay characters."  I don't know what this statement means, that it is a "social taboo" but at least it said for "both faiths" so the matter is not about Islam, this time.  But the writer is dead wrong that gay characters were only presented in movies and fiction "in recent years".  What about classical Arab literature? And the film, Hammam Al-Malatili had a homosexual character (1973).