Berlin’s Gay Muslims Out In The Shadows

Berlin’s gay Muslim immigrants are coming out ever so slightly – and silently:

European Muslims, so often portrayed one-dimensionally as rioters, honor killers or terrorists, live diverse lives, most of them trying to get by and to have a good time. That is more difficult if one is both Muslim and gay.
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Safety and secrecy come up regularly when talking to guests, who laugh and dance, but also frequently look over their shoulders. To be a gay man or lesbian with an immigrant background invites trouble here in two very different ways.

“Depending on which part of Berlin I go to, in one I get punched in the mouth because I’m a foreigner and in the other because I’m a queen,” said Fatma Souad (pictured).

Souad has been hosting a monthly club night called Gayhane, where dozens of gay Muslims find space to express themselves and, of course, dance.