The Cambridge History of Gay and Lbian Lerature - November 2014
Contents:
GAY PEOPLE ARE RECLAIMG AN ISLAMIC HERAGE
"And she said, 'If you're tryg to tell me that you're gay, I already know. 20 years and many difficult nversatns later, most of Merchant's fay has e to accept his sexualy, though he says some of his relativ still stggle to fully embrace him as a gay LGBT Mlim Amerins have not gotten nearly the kd of support Merchant has worked so hard to enjoy, and stead rema closeted for fear of social stigma and faial seems to have been the se wh Omar Mateen, a Mlim man, who killed 49 people when he opened fire on a gay nightclub Orlando last month. The attack may have been motivated by ner turmoil, acrdg to Mateen's ex-wife who said that he had "gay tennci.
Merchant never felt that his fah was at odds wh his sexualy, part bee of a long tradn of acuntg for homosexual and homoerotic relatnships by the 13th and 14th century Islamic mystil poets Rumi and Hafiz, whose work he was exposed to om an early Rumi, Right: Hafiz"Rumi was always lurkg the background, " Merchant said. "It exprs so betifully, so simply, so eternally what I feel about Islam and homosexualy, " Merchant said. "And not jt Islam and homosexualy, but Islam and sexualy.