Gay Muslim marriages are much more common than people think, says top drag performer

Comes as police warn hundreds of gay and lesbian Britons of Asian descent are being pressured into arranged marriages

Through her appearance in 2015 on Channel 4’s Muslim Drag Queens, Asifa was dubbed Britain’s first Muslim drag performer (Channel 4)

Britain’s gay Muslim community is “thriving” with “countless” same-sex marriages having taken place in recent years, the country’s first Muslim drag performer has said.

Asifa Lahore said she had been to “dozens” of LGBT Muslim weddings since gay marriage was legalised in 2014.

Her comments came after a Muslim man claimed to have had the first same-sex Muslim marriage in Britain.

In an interview in The Times, Ms Lahore commented on the recent wedding of Jahed Choudhury, 24, and Sean Rogan, 19, in the West Midlands.

“I’m glad this young boy [Mr Choudhury] has declared so openly about his marriage, but [I] want him to know there have been others before him, and will be many more,” she said.

“In the last three years I’ve been to dozens of gay Muslim, same-sex marriages. I attended one last Thursday, of two gay British Bangladeshi guys.”

Meanwhile, police have warned that hundreds of gay and lesbian Britons of Asian descent are being pressured into arranged marriages.

West Midlands Police said it dealt with at least 30 LGBT people last year who were forced to enter into a heterosexual marriage against their will.

Ms Lahore, who was raised in west London by a devout Muslim Pakistani family, was born as Asif Quraishi.

In her youth, Ms Lahore, at the time Asif, was taken to a GP and imam by her family with the aim of changing her sexuality. This included an attempt at an arranged marriage with a Muslim woman, which Asif refused.

Through her appearance in 2015 on Channel 4’s Muslim Drag Queens, she was dubbed Britain’s first Muslim drag performer, and this year she has begun the gender transition process to become a woman.

Same-sex marriage in Britain has allowed both Ms Lahore and other LGBT Musims to marry - something she said is hugely important to her community.

“In south Asian Muslim culture, marriage is very much a milestone,” she said.

“Even if you identify as LGBT, marriage plays a big part in your upbringing and your psyche, and I think LGBT Muslims in Britain are taking real advantage of equal marriage.”

In July 2014, months after same-sex marriage was made legal, Ms Lahore married a gay man of Pakistani heritage, with whom she had entered a civil partnership with five years earlier.

The couple are currently going through an “amicable” divorce after Ms Lahore’s husband said he preferred not to be married to a woman.

A self-proclaimed LGBT activist for Muslims, Ms Lahore wants members of the community to take full advantage of the rights they now have.

“We live in a country where we now have access to equal rights and they should be exercised,” she said.

“It would break my heart if there were LGBT Muslims out there who didn’t feel they were able to marry.”