The Leveret: In American Gods, An Otherworldly Depiction of Queer Attraction and Connection

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

In American Gods, An Otherworldly Depiction of Queer Attraction and Connection

Calling it pornographic is belittling and making it smaller that what is it. It's not about "Wow, I'm just watching two men fuck." It's "Wow, these are two compassionate people, clearly in love with one another." Just seeing two Middle Eastern men represented in that way, with humor and love and joy, it's taken me eleven years to get to that. I want to see more of that.

– Mousa Kraish
Quoted in Taylor Henderson's article "The Gay Sex Scene
in American Gods Isn't Pornographic, It's Art
Pride
May 12, 2017

Above: Omid Abtahi (left) as Salim and
Mousa Kraish as The Jinn in American Gods.

In the third episode of season one of the popular Staz TV series American Gods, Omid Abtahi and Mousa Kraish play two Middle Eastern immigrants who meet in a cab. Kraish's character is actually an Ifrit, one of the most powerful and dangerous Jinns in Islamic mythology.

Writes Taylor Henderson: "When Salim touches The Jinn's shoulder in conversation, the magnitude of their connection rushes over you like a sandstorm."

Henderson also shares the show's executive producer Michael Green's thoughts on the subsequent scene set in a hotel room: "I saw it as a story of a god giving a man permission to be himself, to enjoy sex, and to be made love to," Green said.

Of this scene, one that's being described as "groundbreaking," Henderson writes: "The electricity and tenderness . . . is otherworldly to watch, and the transcendent imagery evoked makes the men's passion ethereal and fiery."