THERE IS A LINE between encouraging religions to reform and become more progressive, something in which I deeply believe, and leaving non-religious people behind, which has become a problem in Western queer spaces in recent years.
It’s not that I think that religious LGBT people shouldn’t be included in queer spaces. The problem is that within such spaces the attempt to be inclusive toward religious people is disproportionate and can be downright exclusionary towards non-religious people. Being an atheist in queer spaces means receiving far less encouragement and acceptance than being queer in atheist spaces.
Heina Dadabhoy was a practicing Muslim but left Islam as an adult. She blogs at Heinous Dealings on Freethought Blogs (www.freethoughtblogs.com/heinous) and speaks on intersectional secular issues.
