By Over the past year, the Muslim community and the LGBTQ community have experienced immense hardships and losses. Often, we see both communities as mutually exclusive, but we forget those who encompass both identities.
In honor of Pride Month, here are some things queer Muslims often deal with:
1. “So do you represent the LGBTQ+ community or the Muslim community?”
Usually said in a variety of tones, ranging from curiosity to full on aggression. Why can’t I be both? Asking this, regardless of intention, implies that I have to choose between two aspects of my identity that affect me and my livelihood in different ways. Plus, it shows that your image of what a queer person or a Muslim person is narrow, and doesn’t include people like me.
2. “Why would you be a part of a religion that hates you so much?”
Islam doesn’t hate the LGBTQ community any more than any other religion. There are also 1.6 billion of us, so the way we all practice Islam, including our viewpoints on gender on sexuality, are going to be different.
3. Experiencing hate from both communities.
Although there are so many Muslims of different backgrounds, Islam and queerness is often seen as two communities that are constantly pitted against each other. Queerphobia is just as prevalent among Muslims as Islamophobia is in the queer community. It’s difficult being pushed into the margins of your identity, especially when one of your communities is used as a means to justify the hate of another. Regardless of whether you believe we exist, we are still here.
4. Islamophobic pick-up lines. 
“Are you a terrorist? because you look like a bombshell!” “Since you’re Muslim, can I marry you and other people, since that’s a part of your religion.” STOP. JUST STOP. The fact that this has to even be mentioned in 2017 is ridiculous.
5. Unlearning and relearning Islam.
As queer Muslims, we learn to internalize that the validity of how we practice Islam is between us and Allah, and no one else. Because of this, we end up teaching ourselves how to differentiate between the cultural lessons that we learned while growing up from what is actually a part of the religion. If anything, it strengthens our ties to Islam.
Possibly the most head in the sand analysis of Islam I’ve ever read.
Elaborate? Please, bestow your deep understanding of all sects and belief structures of Islam and the lived experiences of GLBTQIA+ Muslims… And I mean this seriously. You have posted a comment that says nothing AT ALL. What did you actually mean; why do you think those things; and please provide evidence and a solid, civil argument for your opinion.
Ok I’ll Give it a go can you please provide copies of any and all surveys taken in countries across the world where the respondents whom nominated as muslim did not in the majority ,firstly condemn homosexuality, secondly want to make it illegal under law if it wasn’t already.
Ewwww not another islamophobic racist guy I had enough dealing with them you know use your brain honey
You have ‘ever read’ I am guessing that your just a random ignorant white guy that still supports the you know….. well don’t want to get to much detail here
Ugh ugh your a non Muslim so you have absolutely NO right to have a say in this topic are you fucking blind it says ‘muslim’ only, listen prick racist people like you suck and they should be exterminated (sigh)
Thank you for posting this! #5 is an important, often overlooked point.
There is a reason Islam forbids living in darul kufr (House of Unbelief) because it produces gay Imams and niqabi lesbians. Publicizing your sins is a greater sin in Islam than actually committing them. Those who publicize their sins are called Mujahirin in Arabic. Abu Huraira reported Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) as saying:
All the people of my Ummah would get pardon for their sins except those who publicise them. And (it means) that a servant should do a deed during the night and tell the people in the morning that he has done so and so, whereas Allah has concealed it. And he does a deed during the day and when it is night he tells the people, whereas Allah has concealed it. https://sunnah.com/muslim/55/68
You mean just don’t get caught and you are fine. What kind of morality is that?
Queer Muslims? That is a new one. Is not “Gay” the proper term?
Gay is homonormative and CIA-gendered whereas queer is broad, encompassing gender and non heterosexuality.????????
Queer has derogatory connotations. And originally meant strange, different, abnormal, even weird. Homosexuals may have commandeered it, same as they did with ‘Pride’, but the nuances are still there, not all good, and not wholesome ones as in ‘Gay’. And ‘Rainbow’. Where did that came from, trademarked?
Where is number 6?