“My dad would shoot me and then commit suicide,” said Sadiq, a quiet, neatly dressed Palestinian who is attending college in the northeast United States.Read the quoted passage above - then tell me what doesn’t fit in. Bingo! Why is being gay in the USA hard? Compared to what? Yes, many people discriminate against gays still and are not comfortable around them - but neither more nor less than the way people treat gays in all the other advanced countries in the world.Being gay in the United States has never been easy.
But being gay and Muslim, especially after Sept. 11, 2001, is a unique act of defiance requiring homosexuals to defend their religious identity in the face of an increasingly suspicious U.S. government and sexual orientation amid hostility from the conservative Islamic community.
Many would rather deny their sexuality than sacrifice family, friends, culture or religion by coming out of the closet.
Now, look at the third sentence in the passage quoted - why is it extra hard for gay Muslims after 9/11? If you read the rest of the article, you will see that these gay Muslims have a lot more to fear from fellow Muslims than from any other “average, ignorant American” (as they are known on that planet that is Reutersville). So what purpose do those quotes serve in the article except to use every freaking chance to bash America? I wouldn’t know.
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? Queer & in the Koran? from Gene Expression
Shanti Magala has some pretty insightful thoughts on this article about Queer Muslims. BTW, I just had a phone conversation with someone who lives in NYC, and apparently he had a big falling out with a friend who is a... [Read More]
Tracked on August 22, 2003 5:50 PM
Obviously this guy doesn’t watch the television program: the queer eye for the straight guy? Doesn’t he know its hot to be gay right now? Hell, straight people are pretending to be gay. OR metrosexual— straight people that appear gay, but are not. :mad:
Posted by: Niraj at August 22, 2003 3:42 PM
Oh, Niraj - don’t you know everybody is persecuted in the US? It is hard living in America, which is why so many people try to immigrate here all the time - isn’t it obvious?
:mad:
Posted by: Shanti at August 22, 2003 3:48 PM
So typical of a fruity muslim to make such comments ;) heheheh - Him and his gay brothers are much safer in the States than anywhere else -
Posted by: David at August 23, 2003 8:44 AM
Shanti, as a member of one of the Persecuted Classes—actually, two of them, yer a damn furriner AND one ‘a them wimmenfolks—I’m shocked and appalled that you should not understand the suffering that homosexuals and Arabs go through in this oppressive country.
You have obviously been brainwashed into supporting your own oppression!
Posted by: Dean Esmay at August 24, 2003 6:43 AM
What can I say, Dean - I believe I am a masochist. I enjoy the imperialistic oppression and suffering and aggression piled upon me every day by the imperialistic USA ;)
Posted by: Shanti at August 24, 2003 7:48 AM
C’mon Shanti, aren’t you being a bit paranoid here? Would take a lot of stretching the imagination to read this as US-bashing.
Posted by: gaurav at August 24, 2003 1:51 PM
Not really, Gaurav - it is US-bashing since the second and the third sentences did not even have to be there. The article is ostensibly about the pressures Gay “Muslims” face from their opwn community - how did those supposedly throwaway sentences help the case of the article?
Are the Muslims bashing their fellow Muslims more so because they are in the US? How is being in America in anyway related to the bias some Muslims show towards gays?
Posted by: Shanti at August 24, 2003 4:27 PM
C’mon, the situation is SO obvious they had to soften it up somehow. How do accomplish this? by throwing in some anti-American bromides. Shanti’s right. There was no need to put them in. In the newspaper world every word is important and those sentences were just a waste.
Posted by: Diana at August 24, 2003 8:40 PM