Over the past year, the plight of LGBT Muslims in the Islamic World and especially the Middle East has become a larger part of my working and personal lives. I reviewed Unspeakable Love: Gay and Lesbian Life in the Middle East by Brian Whitaker (the link is not to my review, but to one on Al-Bab), my friends and colleagues continue to send me articles about the plague of violence of gay men in Iraq, Parvez Sharma, one of my heroes and the producer of A Jihad for Love, is now a friend on Facebook (yes!), and Meem, the LGBT organisation in Lebanon published a collection of stories of Lesbian, Transsexual, and Questioning women entitled Bareed Mista3jil (my copy is in the mail).
As a result of this inundation of questioning my colleagues and friends about homosexuality in Islam and why the violence is happening in Iraq, I am starting a series on LGBTQI issues in Islam and the Islamic World. In the interim, please visit the links above, including The Rainbow Crescent.
