‘Homosexual Intifada’: An anthology embodying the resilience of Palestinian queer communities

I would read Homosexual Intifada: A Queer Palestinian Anthology simply for its editor George Abraham’s moving and strangely hopeful “Introduction’, though of course there is much more in the book to recommend it. Abraham places the anthology squarely in its historical context: “We are writing from within the dying days of western empire and racial capital.” And, thus, they note, “the times are brutal”, permitting for the first time in recorded history, among other things, “a live-streamed genocide which is an abominable failure of humanity and dangerous precedent to set for the (failing) international order.”

But if this is dark, as it should be, for the world has become darker than perhaps the days of my youth, there is also hope in Abraham’s words. For instance when they quote a friend telling them of “Southern US-based, homophobic, transphobic Palestinian parents” who are finally beginning to unlearn their prejudices in the light of the remarkable queer solidarity with the Palestinian cause: “These queer siblings in the heart of empire are more our kin than any of these Khalijis, who could stop this genocide with a snap of a finger.”

Queer solidarity

Queer solidarity with the Palestinian cause has been remarkable: it has taken place despite the political homophobia of...

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