During the Queens Pride Parade two years ago there was a big scare that—it was almost like Al Qaeda was about to attack Queens Pride. If you go to Queens on a Sunday, there are three Muslim guys who stand on the street corner. They are there every Sunday—rain, shine, hell, high waters, they are there.
And they have pictures of Abu Ghraib. They keep changing. Abu Ghraib happened and then you had pictures of Abu Ghraib. But before that, they always had mutilated bodies—this is a child in Iraq. Anyway, very interesting stuff, which they took from the Internet.
Two of them have converted to Islam; they are both white Americans. One of them is an Arab-American. So they said that they would picket the Queens Pride Parade. I have been to many Pride Parades in different cities here and in other parts of the world, and there are always religious groups picketing it—”Turn or Burn,” “Repent or Perish.”
I have never really seen a Muslim group protest during a parade because all these countries have very small gay minorities. This particular one sent both the Pride committee and the press into chaos. So, what should the people at the Queens Pride Parade do? I was contacted because I was with Al-Fatiha, which is a queer Muslim group, so that we could explain this phenomenon.
So I told them—I said there will be two or three of them there because they are there every Sunday. They won’t be there because there is Queens Pride Parade. But they would not believe me, like I was part of some conspiracy by Muslims to hide homophobia in their communities.
Now, if you have been to a Queens Pride Parade, it goes through the South Asian neighborhood in Jackson Heights, where half the businesses are owned by Muslims. All the shops that I go to know that I am gay. They may not approve of it, but it’s none of their business. They are not my relatives, they are not related to me. I am a guy who comes there and shops with some friends who are drag queens. Sometimes I am in drag when I am eating there.
It was very interesting because they asked, “Homophobia in Islam, what would you do with this in a Muslim community? Should we be having this parade here?” And I walked into Kebab King, which is right around the corner, next to Eagle Theater. It’s owned by Pakistanis, and they had a lot of food on display, extra food.
So I asked him, I said, “why do you have so much food here today?” He said, “this is the Gay Pride Parade, so they will be coming in to eat.”
(audience laughter)
