Queerness, chosen family and immigrant family
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Samra Habib's We Have Always Been Here is a beautiful account of coming to terms with one's queerness and identity as a Muslim and a racialized person in the diaspora. Samra's main desire is to find their "people," which they explain is an incredibly complex and challenging thing for queer Muslims. Queer Muslim seems like an oxymoron to some people, leaving these individuals seemingly without community. I thought the idea of a chosen family was especially interesting in this context. A chosen family in the context of Habib's work implies a queer community, but not necessarily a Muslim community, in which queer folks who their families don't accept can find refuge. However, queer identity is more complex for the children of immigrants and religious communities like Muslims. Being accepted in a chosen family of white or non-muslim queer people might not feel entirely in line with the Muslim queer identity. Depending on one's culture and relationship with their family, there could also be a stronger desire to maintain a connection with family, complicating the idea of a chosen family. I thought Habib's writing on Unity Mosque and their emotional experience there was incredibly poignant and essential for readers to understand that queer Muslims have "always been here."