Irish Muslims Share Meal With LGBTQ Community

We love this bit of great news — during Ramadan (which was June 5th to July 5th this year), Muslims fast all day. After sunset, they can break their fast and this meal is called “Iftar”. In Ireland, the Irish Muslim Peace & Integration council invited people in the queer community to share Iftar. When Islam gets such a bad wrap, it’s always good to see true Muslims reaching out to make sure the fundamentalist idiots don’t get all the press. More stories like this please!

That and more in our look at the intersection between religion and the queer community.

• The Vatican announced that Cardinal Nicolás Rodríguez of the Santo Domingo Archdiocese resigned. The Cardinal was often caught in controversy for routinely using homophobic slurs against the openly gay US Ambassador to the Dominican Republic.

• Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, USA released new pastoral guidelines that prohibit unwed sexually active heterosexual couples and couples in same-sex relationships from receiving communion or from serving in the church.

• Popular Iraqi Shiite clergyman Muqtada Sadr issued a religious decree prohibiting violence against gender-non-conforming individuals. The decree categorizes those who cross-dress or are gay as ‘suffering psychologically’ that should not be punished.

• In Ireland the Irish Muslim Peace & Integration Council invited members of the LGBT community to share Iftar—the meal that breaks the day’s fast during Ramadan. Council imam Dr Umar AL-Qadri said the invitation was important as ‘an example of true Islamic ideals.’ 

• Polish organization Faith and Rainbow LGBT announced they will set up a ‘LGBT Pilgrim’s Haven’ during the pope’s visit to Krakow for World Youth Day—the week long festivities held every 3 years in a different country and attended by several million young people.

Unicorn Booty brings attentions to global issues of significance for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people. Our partnership with Equal Eyes, a news source produced in collaboration with UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, is part of that effort. To learn more, visit their site at Equal-Eyes.org. 

This coverage promotes sexual and gender equality while highlighting issues of health, violence, culture, and legal and human rights. Equal Eyes provides advocates and allies a common frame of reference for the realities of global LGBTI communities. Through followup reporting and disseminating this coverage, our effort is to ensure we have a representation of the global stories that matter most or may have under-reporting.

(Featured image via Amrufm/Flickr)