Of course it’s always important to amplify the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ people, but it worried me to see how often religious communities were painted as being inherently opposed to the LGBTQ+ community, how faith was shown as something to be weaponised. 

This frightened me as a young child, and still as a teenager. I would watch these films, not properly understanding my identity back then, but feeling like if I did happen to be LGBTQ+,  the world around me would not understand.

I was raised in a culturally Muslim space, and though I don’t regularly practice, that does not negate the very real relationship I have with core ideals of my faith. Many LGBTQ+ films made me feel as though I would be expected to give up my religion, that faith and being LGBTQ+ were mutually exclusive.

The very first film I remember bringing these thoughts to my mind was the iconic Brokeback Mountain (2005). An element of the film that had a real impact on me was the religious context. Although the film was set in 1960s to 1980s rural Wyoming, USA, differing considerably to my urban East London upbringing, I could resonate with the way society’s religious narratives were used against the main character Ennis del Mar (Heath Ledger).

Ennis demonstrates his disdain at the scripture that had been used against him, describing it frustratedly at one point as “that fire and brimstone crap”. This phrase relates to the punishments received by the people of Sodom and Gomorrah in a Bible story which has, historically, been used by some to justify discrimination against LGBTQ+ people (even though many scholars and thinkers say the scripture has been misinterpreted and mistranslated). Ennis places himself as inherently opposed to religion, primarily due to the way religious scripture was used against him and the way this made him feel. 

Another film that had an impact on how I thought about faith and being LGBTQ+, and one that was more contextually relevant to my own lived experience, was My Brother the Devil (2012). The main character, Rashid (James Floyd), has grown up in a London council estate in a Muslim immigrant family, and struggles to come to terms with the cultural expectations of men and his romantic feelings for the same gender.