#tatchell

In “Gay Imperialism”, Haritaworn, Tauqir and Erdem talk about the integration project of civilizing “homophobic immigrants” (14). What is this project of integration? How does this affect LGBT Muslims, according to the authors?

The integration of “homophobic immigrants” essentially involves white members of the LGBT community teaming together with white heterosexuals to spread their “expert” opinion on how to “fix” the “homophobic immigrant” problem.  In Germany this idea of “fixing” supposedly “homophobic immigrants” resulted in a “Muslim test” added to the citizenship test.  This special test asked questions about how the person desiring citizenship would respond if their child came out as gay, if they saw a gay couple in the streets, etc.  This whole process is ridiculous and extremely Islamophobic. Not only is it ineffective, as someone applying for citizenship probably knows how to answer these questions in a way that won’t raise any suspicions, but it also assumes that Germany is entirely accepting of LGBT people which simply isn’t true.  There are a lot of people in Germany, just like there are everywhere else, who are homophobic but they get their citizenship just fine simply by being born in the country and aren’t subjected to these tests of tolerance (or even frowned upon for their homophobic views in many cases; for them it’s simply “a difference of opinion”).