One night during Ramadan each year, more than 100 queer folks find their way to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center tucked away in New York City’s West Village to break their fast. The iftar, which marks the end of the day’s fasting, draws in folks from all across the Eastern Seaboard and as far as California—all of whom want to celebrate the intersection of Muslim and queer culture. 

Amid escalating anti-immigrant sentiment and policy in the U.S., some queer Muslims have voiced feeling ostracized from their communities and faith traditions. But this year, during Islam’s holiest month, New York City’s LGBT Community Center marked a major milestone—the tenth anniversary of its annual iftar, where queer Muslims can celebrate their culture and break their fasts in the safety of their community. 

“Over the past decade, this event has remained a vital sanctuary where LGBTQ Muslims can fully embrace our intersectional and multicultural identities,” Mohamed Q. Amin, founder and executive director of the Caribbean Equality Project, said at the event. “At a time of rising violence against immigrants and continued efforts to erase transgender and queer people from public life, creating and protecting sacred spaces like this has never been more urgent.” 

In the event’s central room, a dozen tables welcomed guests as speakers from the Center and its partner organizations introduced the event. Then, the iftar began at 7 p.m. with the azan, or call to prayer. But unlike the traditional azan, where men lead the service, a queer woman—community organizer and educator Fazeela Siddiqui—led the LGBT Center’s azan.  Canned water tabs popped and echoed across the hall as the group broke their fast together over  bowls of dates. 

In another of the event’s three rooms, the crowd was entertained by speakers, drag shows, belly dancing, and spoken word poetry over a hot, halal meal sourced from local Muslim restaurants and vendors. A gender-neutral prayer space was set up in a separate room. 

This year’s theme was “A Decade of Ummah,”which the Center defines as “the global community of Muslims bound together by faith or culture,” and featured performers from the last decade of its iftars.

“Our ummah, our community, continues to guide us in building futures grounded in queer courage and collective power,” Amin said. “Ten years on, the LGBTQ community iftar stands as a living expression of repair, resilience, and love, an evergrowing ummah that nourishes body and spirit. And to every queer and trans Muslim whose life is endangered by war, imperialism, genocide, and criminalization, we honor your existence and we continue to fight for your freedom.”

In an interview ahead of this year’s event, the Center’s manager of the New York State LGBT Health and Human Services Network, Louisa Benarbane, emphasized the need for “LGBTQ+ Muslim folks to really be in a space where they can unabashedly be themselves, but still be in community that is oriented in their faith.”

The iftar, which often sells out, is an act of resilience, Benarbane added. 

The Center is “making sure that folks in that lens of their faith are still feeling connected to their religion, their cultures, and, of course, their identities, because they are not contradictions,” Benarbane said. “They are complementary.”

A decade of iftars at the Center

The Center planned and hosted its first iftar in 2017, just months after President Donald Trump enacted a ban on travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries. Trump has targeted both queer people and the Muslim community in the years since, referring to the U.S. population of more than 4 million Muslims as negative, hateful, and radical. 

The annual iftar “was a direct response to the Muslim ban,” Benarbane said. Queer Muslims  needed a space where they could be empowered and build community.

“There are LGBTQ+ Muslims, just like there are variances of all faith[s], and we need dedicated spaces to convene, not only as an act of resistance, but an act of resilience,” Benarbane said.

Polling shows mixed acceptance of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people among Muslim Americans. In 2017, more than half of Muslim Americans reported acceptance, but the Pew Research Center’s 2023-2024 Religious Landscape Study (RLS) showed that 41 percent said homosexuality should be accepted. The RLS found that only 36 percent of Evangelical Protestants accepted homosexuality.

“LGBTQ folks across faiths and cultures have always existed,” Benarbane said. “We will always continue to, and it is always the Center’s mission and goal to provide affirming spaces for that.”

The Center’s iftar dinner parties are put together with the help of a coalition of other LGBTQ+ community organizations refusing to be “pigeonholed into this monolith,” according to Benarbane, including the Caribbean Equality Project, Tarab NYC, SALGA NYC, and the Ayah Project. Over the years, the iftars have grown increasingly popular. 

Prominent activists and politicians have attended the seminal iftar parties previously, including Shahana Hanif, the first Muslim woman elected to the New York City Council, and former New York State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani.

Mamdani, who has since become New York City’s first Muslim mayor, did not attend the iftar this year, but instead sent a video message that was played for the Center’s iftar attendees before they broke their fast. 

The iftars have also explored many themes pertinent to what those in the community are experiencing. Last year, the theme was “Joy & Resilience as Resistance.” Benarbane said the event raised awareness about pinkwashing, a phenomenon where homophobia is used to justify atrocities—in this case, what a UN commission and many experts consider the genocide of Gazans by Israel.

The Center’s 2025 iftar hosted a Palestinian drag king and a queer Palestinian poet, as well as activists from across the region.

That legacy continued this year, amid the Trump administration’s increasing attacks against immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community. Since returning to office in 2025, the president has undermined access to gender-affirming care services, blocked legal recognition of trans people, and erased queer history from national landmarks and federal sites. Bills targeting queer people at the state and federal level have been on the rise since. 

“The more attacks continue on our community, the more we want our community members to know that we are here for them,” Benarbane said. “We will continue to resist and be a safe space for them to authentically be themselves and be in communities with others who share their lived experience and their sexual identity.” 

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‘There is no one way of being Muslim’

The Center has also worked to provide resources on what it is to be Muslim and queer. The document provides historical context for queer Muslims, as well as up-to-date resources responding to the current political environment, and prayer guides for both Shia and Sunni denominations.

“There is no one way of being Muslim,” the prayer companion emphasizes throughout. It includes crossword puzzles, book recommendations, a coloring page, and even a “Where’s Waldo?” half-page game.

“Why celebrate when so many in our communities and across the world are suffering? Because joy is resistance. In a time of rising threats—from ICE raids to attacks on people of color and trans communities—joy keeps us strong,” the guide reads. “It fuels our fight, brings us together, and reminds us of the future we’re building. We celebrate, not in spite of the struggle, but because of it. So have fun! Joy is halal.”  

Nationwide queer resilience

On the West Coast, LGBTQ+ Muslims are also finding connection in culture and religious practice at a series of queer-friendly events hosted by Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV).

The organization hosts iftars each year. 

Ani Zonneveld, who founded the group and is also an imam, leads the prayers at her iftars Mecca-style. While traditional prayers separate men and women on different sides of the room, Mecca-style prayers allow men and women to stand wherever they want, unsegregated.

“I never did the Mecca-style prayer before, and it made me feel like there’s more than one way that I can be Muslim, and it helped me in my faith that way,” MPV volunteer Arisha Ashraf said. 

“I feel like there’s a part of me now that’s able to exist again in queer spaces,” Ashraf added.

The organization’s website is also home to a variety of LGBTQ+ resources that exhibit queer histories in Islam, emphasizing how colonialism and its remnants have impacted different countries in penalizing queerness for centuries.

Ashraf, who regularly attends the group’s annual iftars, said the experiences of the dinner helped her broaden her understanding of Islam and integrate her Muslim community with her queer community. MPV’s LGBTQ+ mental health toolkit, along with more theological lectures provided, helped Ashraf connect with her faith.

She discovered the organization through MeetUp, a social platform for finding like-minded group activities. And last year, Ashraf marched with the organization during the Pride parade in West Hollywood, which describes itself as one of the world’s biggest Pride events. She delivered a prayer alongside other faith-based organizations.

“People would say things like, ‘Well, how do you justify that, though, because it’s not in the Quran.’ And they just get hung up on that,” said Ashraf. “How many things do each of us do that aren’t theologically justified? But we’re still here.” 

The work by groups like Muslims for Progressive Values in West Hollywood and the Center in the West Village are connecting LGBTQ+ Muslims to their community, while promoting gender and sexual diversity.

“You’re putting queer people back into Islam, and it feels super affirming,” Ashraf said.

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