LGBT soldiers group launched to destroy homophobic ISIS

PinkNews logo on pink background with rainbow corners.

An LGBT group of fighters has been launched to take on ISIS.

The Queer Insurrection and Liberation Army, or TQILA ā€“ pronounced ā€˜tequilaā€™ ā€“ has been set up with the motto: ā€œThese Faggots Kill Fascists!ā€

ISIS is notorious for killing LGBT people, both through executions and terror attacks including the Orlando Massacre last year, which left 49 dead.

Now, a northern Syrian movement is hitting back by creating The Queer Insurrection and Liberation Army, or TQILA ā€“ pronounced ā€˜tequila.ā€™

The rainbow group will fight under the banner of the International Revolutionary Peopleā€™s Guerrilla Forces (IRPGF), an anarchist collective which is taking on ISIS with Kurdish forces.

In a statement released on Twitter, TQILA announced its intention to ā€œsmash the gender binary and advance the womenā€™s revolution, as well as the broader gender and sexual revolution.

ā€œTQILAā€™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 ā€˜illā€™, ā€˜sickā€™ and ā€˜unnaturalā€™, the group continued.

tqila v isis manifesto
(Twitter)

ā€œThe images of gay men being thrown off roofs and stoned to death by Daesh was something we could not idly watch.ā€


They also emphasised that ā€œqueerphobia, homophobia and transphobia are not inherent to Islam or any other religion.ā€

And the group ended its message with a battle cry, writing: ā€œQUEER LIBERATION! DEATH TO RAINBOW CAPITALISM! BASH SHOOT BACK!

irpgf  and tqila v isis
(Twitter)

ā€œTHESE FAGGOTS KILL FASCISTS! MILITANT HORIZONTAL SELF-ORGANIZED COLLECTIVES & COMMUNITIES FOR THE REVOLUTION AND QUEER ANARCHISM!ā€

Speaking to Newsweek, TQILA spokesperson Heval Rojhilat would not say how many fighters the group had for security reasons.

However, Rojhilat did say that ā€œmany of our comrades are within the LGBT*QI+ community.

ā€œWe are already fighting in Raqqa.ā€

tqila v isis
(Twitter)

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.