“Oftentimes, being accepted by the Somali community for my queer identity is something that falls much lower on the hierarchy for me. “Now that I’m older, I’m seeing how toxic it is to be Somali, to be black, to be Muslim and an immigrant in America,” Hassan said. If can’t even, why do you think that LGBT Somalis and East Africans can?” I could see all LGBT people coming together, but at some point that privilege comes out. When asked about LGBTQ Somali-Americans becoming further integrated with Minnesota’s larger LGBTQ community, Michelle, a 29-year-old Somali gay woman who came to Minnesota seven years ago, said: “I don’t really foresee that happening in this country. Even though Minneapolis’ LGBTQ community is large and visible, many of the individuals interviewed for this piece say it has largely met them with hostility – an extension of the overt racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia boiling in the US at large. Minnesota’s Somali-American community has been scapegoated for crime and terrorism, having been publicly berated by Donald Trump and specifically targeted in the president’s failed attempt at banning immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries.
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“There’s a lot of Islamophobia and xenophobia, and I feel like Trump has brought a lot of that out of people in the community.” “White queers are really good at erasing us,” Hafsa said.
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Nearly two-thirds of those 3 million people are white. Minneapolis also has a reputation as an LGBTQ-friendly city, with some estimates placing its LGBTQ population at more than 10% of the city’s three million residents. Recent surveys estimate that there are more than 30,000 Somalis living in the Minneapolis-St Paul area – nearly a third of all Somalis living in the US. I feel that all my experience as a queer Muslimah has influenced me and now it bites me back.” Queerness is something I feel estranged from because white queer communities have a different experience than I do. One woman, who identifies as queer, wrote in a text message: “If you want my thoughts, Islam is toxic, my community feels distant from me. I should not be surprised that just because we happen to share a sexuality that it would absolve them or cure them of all prejudices that exist.” As for being Somali in Minneapolis’ LGBTQ community: “It has been awful.
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It’s expected,” Hassan said of homophobia and transphobia in his Somali-American community. Guled consented to having their real name published in this article. “A lot of times you feel like you have to chose,” said Hafsa Guled, a 21-year-old who identifies as genderqueer and uses gender neutral pronouns. Another interviewee had a parent follow them around the house with Zamzam water – from a sacred well in Mecca – after being outed, and had also been accosted for wearing hijab at an LGBTQ event. He has also been called “faggot” by straight Somalis outside the same bar.
#HANDS IN PRAYER GAY PRIDE COLORS DRIVERS#
One interviewee stood outside a popular gay bar in Minneapolis and saw gay white men call Somali taxi drivers “goatfuckers”. Theirs are all stories of resilience, and of finding strength in each other amidst waves of rejection. I recently sat down with six Somali-Americans who identify as LGBTQ to hear about what their lives are like in a time where these demographics are under attack. On the other hand, xenophobia, Islamophobia and racism are deeply rooted in Minnesota’s largely white LGBTQ community. On the one hand, homophobia and transphobia plague the Somali-American community. For people like Hassan, who is queer and a Somali-American, community can be a difficult thing to find.