The response to the murder of Imam Muhsin in South Africa last week sends a chilling message that queer and trans Muslims do not matter, that our suffering is not worthy of recognition, that our deaths will not be mourned.

Most headlines call him the “world’s first openly gay imam,” a newsworthy descriptor but hardly the whole story. Beyond Muhsin’s work with queer Muslims, he was a pillar of queer rights activism and the queer interfaith movement globally. He was a father, a grandfather and a friend.

Muhsin Hendricks, an openly gay imam, Islamic scholar and LGBT rights activist was shot and killed in Gqeberha, South Africa as he was leaving to officiate an interfaith marriage.