Listening to Decolonial Queering: The Role of Palestine and LGBTQIA+ Palestinians

The existence of LGBTQIA+ Palestinians and in general the interaction between being queer, the queer movement and Palestine has often been ignored, dismissed and denied within mainstream Western media and knowledge production. This could not be further from the truth. Queer Palestinians have always existed: their existence and visibility is an act of resistance in itself.

The British Mandate Criminal Code Ordinance 1936, Section 152(2), is in force in Gaza. This law makes it illegal for men to have sex with women or men in a way that “contravenes natural laws” with a penalty of up to ten years in prison. Emphasis lies on the act being committed by force. Multiple Palestinian feminist-queer organizations exist and have fought for the holistic liberation of their communities for decades. These local Palestinian organizations act as crucial tools for decolonial queering (Alqaisiya, 2020:108). In this way, Decolonial Queering emphasizes the need for “transcending exclusivist gay identifications and constructing possibilities for gay re-signification” (Alqaisiya, 2018:31) within the context of (LGBTQIA+) Palestinians’ colonial realities.

alQaws for Sexual & Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society is a grassroots civil society organization building LGBTQ communities and promoting new ideas about the role of gender and sexual diversity in political activism, civil society institutions, media and everyday life. alQaws’ activities include running community centers and events in cities and rural areas across Palestine, operating a national support hotline, building partnerships and alliances, creating campaigns and transforming public discourse (alQaws, 2014). alQaws is defined by  strong anti-colonial, queer-feminist values. alQaws is heavily community-focused: the Palestinian LGBTQIA+ community is prioritized within their programs, which includes designing all initiatives according to the local realities of the Palestinian society and upholding a holistic approach towards the liberation and empowerment of (LGBTQIA+) Palestinians across socio-economic, ethnic, religious, ability and educational lines. alQaws seeks to counteract sexual and gender-based oppression and to challenge the colonial and  patriarchal regulation of bodies and sexualities/sexual orientations. alQaws’ projects center around support & counseling, community-building and social & cultural change (ibid). For alQaws, queer liberation is fundamentally tied to the end of all systems of oppression (alQaws, 2021). alQaws’ work draws attention to the absence of queer-Palestinian-decolonial perspectives within Western queer approaches. alQaws engages critically with the supposed universality of a Western queer regime which dismisses the nuances and specificities of other (queer) contexts (Alqaisiya, 2018:39), notably in relation to colonial power dynamics. alQaws’ thematic foci offer invaluable insight into how to think about LGBTQIA+ rights, liberation and inclusion within a Palestinian context.

Aswat-Palestinian Feminist Center for Sexual and Gender Freedoms is a community-based organization with a grassroots focus which empowers Palestinian LGBTQIA+ women and enhances their visibility. Aswat advocates for sexual freedoms and gender justice and is grounded in feminist-queer values. Aswat’s work is committed to perspectives which highlight the intersections between different forms of oppression and discrimination. The organization/movement is entirely composed of queer and transgender women working directly on issues connected to Palestinian women’s sexualities, bodies and rights. Aswat’s projects are based on LGBTQIA+ Palestinian women’s needs and well-being, particularly in the context of sexual rights, freedoms and sexuality education. Similar to alQaws, Aswat carries a distinct focus on decolonization and interweaves it with struggles surrounding sexuality, sexual orientation and gender identity (Astraea, 2019).

Palestinian Queers for BDS (PQBDS) is a group of Palestinian queer activists who mobilize within Palestinian civil society under the umbrella of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). PQBDS operates on the following premise: the struggle for sexual and gender diversity is interconnected with the struggle for freedom. PQBDS’ mission is thus holistic; their activism does not address social injustice and rights for LGBTQIA+ persons in the Palestinian society as a single, separated issue (PQBDS). PQBDS has been successful at broadening the (queer) fight/resistance against colonial policies on a global scale.

In addition to the above-mentioned community-based Palestinian queer-feminist organizations, No Pride in Genocide, a collective of Queer and Trans Palestinian, Arab/Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) folks, Jews, and allies working for a free Palestine, has recently emerged (No Pride in Genocide, 2024). Their main goal consists in building a coalition of activists in order to call for an immediate ceasefire. They organize digitally via coordinated campaigns, strategic direct action and through cultural work + community building (ibid).

Rights for ALL LGBTQIA+ persons can only be achieved by mobilizing within a decolonial framework. Oppression is enforced on multiple axes of identity and difference, such as race, ethnicity, religion, gender (identity), nationality, sexual orientation and class. Recognizing the intersection between these axes is crucial in the fight for the liberation, rights, protection, representation and visibility of LGBTQIA+ persons. As such, we cannot and must not separate the struggles LGBTQIA+ movements address from the underlying structural inequalities queer Palestinians are facing. Their liberation and empowerment is part of our fight, part of our existence and part of the universal emancipation for all marginalized people. It is imperative to listen to and support feminist and queer organizations and collectives in Palestine.