https://news.trust.org/item/20201218151927-hgnvdBy Kim Harrisberg
JOHANNESBURG, Dec 18 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – It's hard to pull up a chair and talk sex or fly imams over closed borders for gender training in a pandemic.
But Imam Muhsin Hendricks wasn't about to let COVID-19 destroy his carefully crafted Islamic training programme - he'd faced down too much else in his 53 years.
One of the first imams to come out as gay, Hendricks is a pioneer, known continent-wide for pursuing dialogue with fellow Muslim leaders about a topic many don't want to discuss.
Same-sex relations remain a taboo across much of Africa and in much of the Muslim world.
Seeking to smash those taboos, pre-pandemic Hendricks held workshops, hosted talking circles for select imams and comforted Muslims anguished by their sexuality or gender identity.
Once the virus struck, he refashioned his programme for the times: virtual workshops for those who could not travel, and safe, socially distant meet-ups for those who could.
"It is such a challenge to give hope when people are experiencing loneliness, financial loss and low self-esteem in the time of COVID," said Hendricks from his mosque in Cape Town.
"But we had to pull it off," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, given the influence these religious leaders could have in their thousands-strong congregations.
CRIMINALISED
Across Africa, 32 nations out of 54 criminalise same-sex relations, according to the 2020 State-Sponsored Homophobia report released by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World).
The continent has some of the world's most prohibitive laws against homosexuality, with punishments ranging from life imprisonment to death.
South Africa is the only country on the continent to allow same-sex marriage and its 1996 constitution was the first in the world to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Hendricks started his own mosque in 2011 - called Masjidul Ghurbaah, meaning ‘The Mosque of the Strangers’ in Arabic, also called Our Spiritual Safe Space by attendees - so gay Muslims had a place to pray, free from discrimination.
"We needed an inclusive space, where everybody felt welcome," said Hendricks, who ran a meet-up from his garage when he first came out.
This week, Hendricks was one of nearly 400 faith leaders to sign a declaration, organised by the Ozanne Foundation charity, calling for countries to overturn bans on same-sex relations and end LGBT+ conversion therapy.
Hendricks believes progress has been made since he first came out as gay in 1998.
"I was fearful for my life at the time...but the need to be authentic was greater than the fear to lose my life," he said.
