Queer guerrilla soldiers fighting ISIS send message of support to Stockholm Pride
A group of guerrilla soldiers battling ISIS have sent a message of support to pride.
The Queer Insurrection and Liberation Army, or TQILA – pronounced ‘tequila’ – is said to be fighting is so-called Islamic State in their own territory.
The group has proudly posted online with its motto, “These Faggots Kill Fascists!”
ISIS is notorious for killing LGBT people, both through executions and terror attacks including the Orlando Massacre last year, which left 49 dead.
Now the group of queer fighters have sent a message of solidarity back to their friends in Stockholm, Sweden, where pride took place over the weekend.
The group posted to Twitter, writing: “TQILA to Stockholm Pride thx2 @Mexlumy at YPG Media Center. Att få älska vem man vill är värt kampen! Kärlek från Raqqa till Pride Stockholm”.
The rainbow group will fight under the banner of the International Revolutionary People’s Guerrilla Forces (IRPGF), an anarchist collective which is taking on ISIS with Kurdish forces.
In a statement released on Twitter on their creation, TQILA announced its intention to “smash the gender binary and advance the women’s revolution, as well as the broader gender and sexual revolution.
“TQILA’s members have watched in horror as fascist and extremist forces around the world have attacked the Queer community and murdered countless of our community members citing that they are ‘ill’, ‘sick’ and ‘unnatural’, the group continued.
“The images of gay men being thrown off roofs and stoned to death by Daesh was something we could not idly watch.”
They also emphasised that “queerphobia, homophobia and transphobia are not inherent to Islam or any other religion.”
And the group ended its message with a battle cry, writing: “QUEER LIBERATION! DEATH TO RAINBOW CAPITALISM! BASH SHOOT BACK!
“THESE FAGGOTS KILL FASCISTS! MILITANT HORIZONTAL SELF-ORGANIZED COLLECTIVES & COMMUNITIES FOR THE REVOLUTION AND QUEER ANARCHISM!”
Speaking to Newsweek, TQILA spokesperson Heval Rojhilat would not say how many fighters the group had for security reasons.
However, Rojhilat did say that “many of our comrades are within the LGBT*QI+ community.
“We are already fighting in Raqqa.”
In August last year, ISIS executed at least five men for being accused of being gay, including two of its own members.
The month before, the terrorist group publicly executed another man accused of being gay by throwing him from a rooftop.
And ISIS claimed responsibility for the Orlando Massacre, which saw terrorist Omar Mateen kill 49 people at the Pulse nightclub last June.
This followed reports that the shooter called police to swear allegiance to the extremist organisation.
