Abstract
This article draws on twenty-four interviews and 2 years of ethnographic fieldwork with leaders of Queer and Trans Muslim Organizations (QTMOs) in Toronto, Canada. Rather than look at psychological identity dissonance or integration, the paper follows a recent shift in focusing on LGBTQ religious group formation and membership. I look at the ways that creating sectarian groups, as opposed to acquiring reform from mainstream institutions, impacts collective identity formation. Analyzing the responses of QTMO leaders to both queer and religious institutions reveals that such organizations foster multidimensional collective identities that are distinct from the mainstream. I show that QTMOs can be analyzed as alternative-to-mainstream “safe spaces,” which pose a challenge to the sexism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, and racism that they perceive as occurring in the religious and queer mainstream. In doing so, they cultivate strong oppositional and intersectional collective identities. The article contributes both to the study of LGBTQ religious group formation and to the analytical development of ‘safe spaces,’ as sites within which marginalized collective identities emerge.
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Notes
In using the word queer, I mean to refer to all of those who fall under the queer ‘umbrella’ of sexual diversity; in using the word trans, I mean to evoke both Serano’s (2007) definition to refer to who “struggle with a subconscious understanding or intuition that there is something “wrong” with the sex they were assigned at birth” (p. 36), and to Stryker et al. (2008) relational definition of ‘trans-,’ as “mov[ing] beyond the narrow politics of gender identity” (p. 14). As such, I also use to the word trans to refer to non-binary experiences. Although Thumma and Gray’s (2005) book includes scarce examples trans experiences, the analytical distinction between queer and trans is not made. Instead, LGBT and gay are used interchangeably, while most examples refer to gay and lesbian religious experiences. .
In this paper, I refer to LGBTQ religious groups as Queer and Trans Religious organizations. Again, I make the purposeful choice to distinguish queer from trans because each category represents different experiences of marginalization that are respectively result from one’s expressions of sexuality and gender. This distinction is also rooted in decades of politically contentious debates, and in the demand of trans communities to be recognized as separate from queer ones (see Connell 2012 for a detailed overview). Hence, while, for instance Fuist et al. (2012) use the term LGBTROs to refer to LGBTQ religious groups, this paper uses QTMO as a nod to these complex histories.
By leaders, I refer either to those who have founded the organizations or hold key organizing/leadership roles in them.
A third ‘institutional’ form is also outlined in the book: Thumma and Gray (2005) classify those who don’t fall into the other two categories as ‘finding spiritual expression’ in popular culture. Given that this form does not explicitly address group participation for LGBTQ religious people, I restrict my analysis to the first two institutional forms.
See Puar (2007) for a detailed analysis of how homonationalism and the universalization of gay rights enables the surveillance of and violence against Muslim bodies.
Again, I use ‘queer’ mainstream as opposed to ‘LGBTQ’ mainstream in an effort to acknowledge the ways that trans populations have been excluded from it.
Evans and Boyte (1986) also looked at safe spaces as environments for learning public skills, adopting cooperation values, and embracing civic virtue. The authors argued that these features made safe spaces necessary precursors to democratic movements.
Three out of twenty-four interviews were conducted with leaders of two interfaith groups. Such organizations are similar to the QTMOs in the sense that they have many racialized members. Like QTMOs, these groups are distinctly sectarian. Given that our conversation was geared toward Islam and queer/trans identity, more research is needed to examine how the interfaith aspect of these groups impacts their decision to forgo mainstreaming.
Non-binary refers to individuals who identify as being neither male nor female.
Ru Paul’s Drag Race is a popular reality competition television series, where drag queens engage in a weekly competition. Contestants are eliminated weekly until the remaining queen is crowned ‘America’s next drag superstar.’ The show has received criticism from LGBTQ communities for various reasons, namely that it sensationalizes drag culture and erases the lived experiences of marginalized drag queens.
As mentioned, many people simply refer to “Church Street” or “Church and Wellesley” when talking about the gay village.
Another potentially useful way of looking at QTROs is through Foucualt’s notion of “heterotopias” (Foucault, 1967) or spaces which are subversive and transformative because they are different from the mainstream.
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Acknowledgements
A most sincere note of gratitude to my QTMuslim friends: I have learned so much from you. I am also indebted to Eran Shor and Barry Eidlin for their helpful and constructive comments.
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Golriz, G. ‘I am Enough’: Why LGBTQ Muslim Groups Resist Mainstreaming. Sexuality & Culture 25, 355–376 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-020-09773-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-020-09773-x