Pink Triangle, Yellow Crescent. posted by Richard Seymour

Following on from this guest post from last year, it is worth following up on the tendency of some gay activists to "provide a pink patina for Islamophobic stereotypes". The Guardian reports today that the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association has been harshly criticised by other gay activists and groups for describing Islam as growing like a "canker" in the UK because of "unrestrained and irresponsible breeding". I seem to recall the same sort of shit being levelled at Catholics in Northern Ireland. Dour, fearful and resentful Unionists would utter expletive-laden sentences about them fuckin taigs havin wee bastards and takin the fuckin welfare when they're not robbin the fuckin Post Offices etc etc. Galha's commentary doesn't really rise above the bar rant of your average racist.

Although Galha has apparently experienced some internal criticism of such remarks (made repeatedly and fervently, it has to be said) and has therefore had to fire the editor and deputy editor of their magazine, the group's secretary Mr Broadhead stands by his comments about Islam, which he described as a "barmy doctrine". He says:

There may be people who think of themselves as moderate but we've yet to see them coming out and condemning their fundamentalist counterparts. If they want to follow a belief that we think is execrable it's up to them - it's a question of religion per se and the damage it can do in extremist form in theocracies where gays are not just put in jail but whipped and tortured.

Never mind for a second that plenty of Muslims do criticise the 'fundamentalists' all the fucking time - Muslims, uniquely, must pass a test. This is McCarthyite witch-hunting: prove yourself! Expose and denounce your comrades before the tribunal! Imaan, the support group for LGBT Muslims, comments:

In lots of ways the gay community reflects the straight community but Galha has gone beyond what the average straight person thinks. These comments are disgusting. They are worse than what the BNP would publish. It is racist.

It is sad that Galha, who you would expect to understand how oppression works - and feels - divides itself from another oppressed group who are in considerable need of solidarity at this time, and allows itself to reproduce the most sinister bilge from the racist far right.