09/04/2021
Activist and essayist Tariq Raouf, who writes regularly for the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper, has contributed an article to the long standing gay magazine The Advocate in which they argue for LGBTQ people of Arab and Muslim descent to embrace all aspects of their identities, free of pressure from white prejudiced parts of the LGBTQ communities, and from traditionalists within the Muslim community. They are writing ahead of the Islamic holy month of Ramadhan which commences in mid April. Tariq writes: “know that there are so many ways to be a Muslim, even if you don’t want to practice. Having confidence in your identity as a Muslim is one of the ways we can disprove the global misconceptions about us, and the world needs to know that we’re not the stereotypes people see in the media”. The full essay appears in the Advocate entitled “An Open Letter to Queer Muslim Youth In America”.
