My article is not about wanting to live in a Muslim majority country. Although, I should point out that Muslim majority countries are not uniform in their treatment of LGBTQ people. Several Muslim-majority countries I’ve spent time in are at pretty much the same level of intolerance that the US was at when I was a boy — and they’re getting better. Many others, of course, treat LGBTQ people abominably and aren’t likely to make progress any time soon.

The point of my article is that treating progressive Muslims with disdain and disrespect, as if their religion must invalidate their progressive credentials, is uncalled for and counterproductive. People are very unlikely to stop being Muslims, but plenty of Muslims adapt their worldview to more contemporary values. They should be shown some love and respect for that, not pigeonholed and dismissed.

And, btw, it’s really not Christian values making life better for LGBTQ people. Organized Christianity has fought us pretty hard. LGBTQ rights and equality only began to bloom with the withering of traditional Christian values in the 1960s.