Okay, Iām gonna go on a rant about LGBT Muslim rep in media and this is super important so please spread and reblog this:
Obviously, itās well known that thereās barely any rep for Muslims, and EVEN LESS rep for us Muslims who are also a part of the LGBT community. For obvious reasons (cough homophobia cough cough islamophobia) the media just doesnāt want to include us.
But Iām not here to rant about that, not only because there are plenty of other explanations on why that rep is important to us, but also because the people who are giving us rep are usually misinformed and giving it to us wrong. No, Iām here to rant about the terrible type of representation we ARE getting, because really itās awful:
In every single piece of media Iāve seen that has included LGBT Muslims, the writers always have to go out of their way to show how they break Muslim ātraditionsā. The character always drinks, eats pork, does drugs, has a lot of sex, or just blatantly doesnāt give a fuck about Muslim rules, traditions,or cultures.
Now of course, thereās really nothing wrong with what Iāve stated above. Not all Muslims follow the restrictions exactly and that doesnāt make them any less Muslim, or human. Its the fact that EVERY SINGLE LGBT Muslims in media acts like. That all of the characters Iām supposed to see myself in quite clearly have had no research or effort put into the Muslim part of their Identity.
Its the fact that whenever I try to watch a show with LGBT Muslim characters I have to shut it off because itās so blatantly obvious the creators think that to be LGBT is to sacrifice parts of what makes us Muslim, that itās impossible for us to be both fully and unapologetically. Itās the fact that they think who we are, or who weāre attracted to, changes the way we see our faith. Itās the fact that at the beginning these characters are always considered ārepressedā and āin need of helpā until some white gay decides to show them what ātrue freedomā is, as if our religion is holding us back, as if we need someone who disrespects our religion to save us, and as if Islam in itself isnāt freedom for us.
Not only does it make us feel horrible and wrong; as if what weāre shown is confirming that we cannot, in fact, have both - And that following Muslim culture makes us less LGBT, or that being LGBT means that all our actions as Muslims are worthless. It also contributes to huge amounts of Islamophobia in the LGBT community and Homophobia in the Muslim one.
It isolates us, shows us our worst fears, and tells us āThere is no place where you can ever truly be yourself, because who you are is wrong and broken.ā
It is super fucking important to create LGBT Muslim characters, we are in desperate need of that rep and itās really important to us. But when you create that rep, you canāt just slap a hijab on an LGBT character and say āWow thatās perfect!ā, actual thought and research needs to be put in or else you could cause serious harm to our small community. Please stop making your LGBT Muslim characters hate their religion and not give a fuck about spirituality and that part of them just because their LGBT, thatās not how it works and If you do that shit your fucking Islamophobic and I hate you.
If you donāt stop I will personally come to your house and scream at you for hurting me and my community.
