Khalid Abdel-Hadi
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Khalid Abdel-Hadi | |
|---|---|
 Abdel-Hadi on the February 2014 cover of My Kali | |
| Born | 1988 or 1989 (age 37–38) Amman, Jordan |
Khalid Abdel-Hadi (born 1988 or 1989)[1] is a Jordanian LGBT rights activist and model, best known for founding My.Kali, the first LGBT magazine in the Middle East. Abdel-Hadi was listed as one of The Guardian's "LGBT change heroes of 2017".[1]
Abdel-Hadi was born and raised in Amman, Jordan. His family has Palestinian and Kurdish-Turkish roots. Abdel-Hadi was bullied at school for acting feminine.[2] He came out to his mother at age 14, telling her he liked men; she told him he was "just yearning for a father figure".[2][3]
He graduated from the University of Petra in 2014.[4]
My.Kali
Abdel-Hadi was interested in magazines since childhood. He had attempted to intern at local publications, but was turned down for being "too out there".[5] In 2007, at age 17, he decided to found My Kali with some of his friends, with the aim of providing LGBT-related content.[5] On 30 October 2007, a local Jordanian publication, Ammon News, reported on its launch, reprinting My Kali's cover image of a shirtless Abdel-Hadi, though it identified him only as a "gay Jordanian teen".[5][6] This article was referenced by numerous publications, outing Abdel-Hadi.[5][6] At the time, Abdel-Hadi feared for his life.[5][7] Abdel-Hadi recounted this event for the 2022 anthology, This Arab Is Queer.
Art
In 2022, Abdel-Hadi co-curated Habibi, Les Révolutions de l’Amour, an exhibition of LGBT artists from the Arab world and diaspora, at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris.[8]