When I hear Muslims, or any religious individual for that matter, use the line: "Being gay isn't haram but acting on those desires is," I am left with so many questions. What *exactly* are you trying to say? What's the point of this line? I have so much to say.

Let's take your words as you say them. So *being* gay isn't forbidden, but ACTING on that reality is. Okay, but we can't forget that being gay is sexualized, particularly in (Muslim) homophobic contexts. So what are *YOU* doing, good Muslim, to separate being gay from "the act"?

Are you holding your friends accountable when they make homophobic, sexual jokes? Are you prepared to support and help a friend who comes out of the closet? Are you working towards a world where queer Muslims aren't defined by private sexual acts but by their character?

Or, are you instead willfully contributing to that world where being gay is synonymous with being sodomized? Is synonymous with a vulgar insult? At that point, what does your argument that you love the gay boy but hate his sexual identity truly accomplish?

For if they are one and the same, and exist in the same body, and hating one inevitably brings violence upon the other, it's impossible to pick and choose. Your words come off as hatred and ignorant blabbering of someone who does not understand what homophobia looks like.

You can say that violence and hatred are never justified towards gay people, that you just don't want the "the act" justified, well then, what is "the act"? Is it sexual intercourse? The same sexual intercourse that you have no islamic right to inquire about?

Or is it kissing someone of the same sex? Holding their hand? Having a high pitched voice? Walking 'effeminately'? Or just saying the words "I'm gay"? At what point does your comfortability with gay people become clear because I have trouble seeing it.

Your homophobia has created a vulgar and violent world for the gay Muslim. Simply identifying as gay is as if they fucked right in front of you. That's why this argument is bullshit. It's rhetorical knife cutting of the gay Muslim into roles and bodies they can never inhabit.

What happens when your argument still results in violence against queer Muslims? Were you inciting violence? Of course not, right? You would never want that, right?

Then cut the shit and realize that no one is trying to "justify" anything because you can't justify existence. We are not arguments of fiqh, nor debates to be had, we are not negotiable beings. And muslim youth are suffering and dying because you treat us like that.

this is from a male perspective because I'm truly talking about myself here, not to prioritize male gay narratives. I'm just annoyed tonight and unsure if this even made sense