The LGBT community is often criticized for setting an agenda that is taken largely from a gay white male perspective. For instance, marriage equality is currently front and center, but for some same-gender-loving people of color, marriage is not necessarily a top priority. More pressing for us may be issues like HIV/AIDS, employment discrimination, homophobia being preached at the pulpit, and plain economic inequality.

Said [...] from Belgium's intercultural organisation, Merhaba, which targets gay Muslims, told EUobserver [...] "Being both Arab and gay for instance, we wish to be accepted for being both. In whatever the EU undertakes, we expect a global approach. You cannot fight one phobia with another."

Twenty years after being diagnosed HIV positive, Magic Johnson is looking healthy and continuing his efforts to spread awareness about HIV and AIDS. Now, he's calling on his friends in the hip hop community to educate their fans about another misunderstood topic: homosexuality.

In May 2010, Intersections International, an interfaith non-profit based in New York City, opened a one-on-one dialogue about the role the LGBT community has within Islam, with about 50 Muslim theologians, religious practitioners, academics and laypeople from U.S. cities with high populations of Muslims, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Dearborn, MI.