Just woken up and seen the news. Horrible. Is everyone ok? These were the messages I sent yesterday to a Berlin WhatsApp friend group, having woken up to the news of a terror attack on Berlin pride. I was in the city early last week for a queer festival – it’s always a place I associate with freedom – and the proximity of my visit made the news of this attack even more chilling and shocking.
Suspect killed by police
The suspect, Abdul Ballout, was killed by police yesterday, and although I’m relieved that this means this spate of violence is over, I am always very wary of cheering on extrajudicial deaths. I’d prefer to see perpetrators held to account in the courts, not shot in the streets, although German authorities do say that the suspect, who they alleged tried to join the Islamic State, attempted to charge them with a knife.
But that is about the German response to this tragedy. The reason I felt compelled to write this op-ed is because of what’s happening here in the UK, where hard right politicians and pundits are making hay out of an attack which killed one person, and injured 29 others.
Far-right exploitation of tragedy
They accuse the ‘tolerant left’ of creating the very conditions for this tragedy to take place, essentially victim blaming those affected. One writer said there was ‘naivety’ among the left, while Nigel Farage posted that ‘the strange left wing alliance between Islamists and the LGBT community cannot last.’ I’m not exactly grateful to have the ‘support’ of the Reform leader, who once tweeted his support for a ban on ‘poisonous trans ideology in our schools’.
As queer people, we should be taking this time to mourn this tragedy. Unfortunately, we also have to now deal with a whole slew of contradictions and bigots using this moment to pretend to care about our rights in order to spout hateful views.
Queer people reject all extremism
Queer people reject extremism and bigotry in all its forms, whether that comes from Christian nationalists, tech billionaires, or islamic extremists. We know that we are in danger from all of the above, and in mine and many of my friends’ experience, the danger is felt most keenly from white people.
If the alleged perpetrator in Berlin had been white, the same siren voices urging us to have a reckoning over our tolerance of Muslims would be talking about a troubled individual, a lone wolf, a singular tragedy. There would be no wider attacks at the communities he comes from, or the places he was radicalised, no suggestion that a ‘strange alliance’ between LGBT people and white people is partly to blame.
Personal experiences of homophobia
When we suffer abuse from white people, no one calls to ban the Christian ideologies that underpinned some of it. In my view, negativity towards LGBT people is tacitly encouraged by some of the same people now urging us to look at our own intersectionality for a potential cause of this tragedy.
The homophobic abuse I’ve received on the streets of the UK has been mostly from white people. The death threats on my social media or comments calling me a paedo for hosting family friendly drag shows, these are not from Muslims, they’re from white people who hate others for being queer.
I lived in Whitechapel (one of the far right’s favourite cause celebres as a supposed ‘no-go’ area for anyone who isn’t a strict Muslim) for four years and never experienced a single homophobic incident. But I was physically threatened twice on one trip to Southend in the time it took to get from the train station to the beach.
Rejecting bigotry
I do not blame all people from Southend for this, just as I do not blame all Muslims for an attack allegedly carried out by one of their number against my community in Berlin. Because I am not a bigot. So I’d urge British right wing voices to spare me the faux concern and outrage now, now that there’s a perpetrator you were looking for any excuse to dunk on.
People who have never previously demonstrated any support for our community do NOT get to use our tragedies to promote bigotry. Reform backed councils around the UK have refused to fly the Pride flag this year, and have defunded celebrations, but expect us to treat their response to an act of violence at a Pride event with anything other than suspicion.
Islamophobia does not protect queer people. My community knows better than to demonise an entire group of people based on the actions of a few; frankly, if we didn’t we wouldn’t have any friends outside of those we attend Pride with.
Conclusion
I hate that I had to write this article, which should instead be a tribute to those who died and have been injured in Berlin, but I refuse to let our tragedies be used to stoke further division. Those who denigrated our community must never be allowed to use us to attack another minority. Not in my name.
