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1/ Someone asked me why I'm celebrating #Section377 as a Pakistani. It's because in a world that hates us, queer south asians have never had a voice. We face debilitating oppression from the outside world and from within our own communities. [THREAD]
2/ Our solidarity crosses borders
In India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, even among liberal families we are pressured into keeping our sexuality subdued and our opinions silent.
In India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, even among liberal families we are pressured into keeping our sexuality subdued and our opinions silent.
3/ We are pressured into accepting a way of life that isn't truly representative of who we are and what we believe in.
4/ And if we are less privileged, we are raped, forced into marriages, killed in the name of honour, outcasted from our families or forced into living a lie as heterosexuals.
5/
While here in the western world, gay desi men suffer from hyper desexualisation within mainstream media, and queer brown women are left alone in facing the devastating, incomparable pressures of desi patriarchal systems. No one is speaking out for us.
While here in the western world, gay desi men suffer from hyper desexualisation within mainstream media, and queer brown women are left alone in facing the devastating, incomparable pressures of desi patriarchal systems. No one is speaking out for us.
6/ We have no queer icons, no celebrities. Anyone that fights for recognition here in the UK or in the US is met with silence and a deep sense of isolation. We are alone.
Even my own experience is telling.
Even my own experience is telling.
7/ When I was outed, it was less than a handful of British Asians that made a rallying cry against the violence committed against my brown body. Sayeeda Warsi and Maajid Nawaz were the only South Asian personalities that spoke up for me.
8/ BBC Asian Network never reached out to me, straight South Asian politicos remained absolutely silent. It was white men & women, and black, Indian and Pakistani LGBTQ people that rallied behind me. But most of my own community remained silent.
9/ While English men and women called me a 'national hero' (a claim I most definitely reject), my own community refused to acknowledge my efforts, my trauma or the gravity of what I was doing.
10/ I was shaking the very fabric of British politics but my sexuality was hindering support from the people who should have been loudest. I was drowning - I was alone, isolated, desperate.
11/ But Indian gay men, Pakistani trans women and my friends back in Karachi kept me above the water. Desi queers rallied behind me, told me I wasn't alone.
12/ They knew the struggle I was facing and they were the only ones who could ever understand the depth and weight of it.
The South Asian LGBTQ community has found a safe haven in our shared cultures. And our love, pain and shared trauma cross Lord Montgomery's borders.
The South Asian LGBTQ community has found a safe haven in our shared cultures. And our love, pain and shared trauma cross Lord Montgomery's borders.
13/
From queer icon Poo in Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham to drooling over Fawad Khan, queer desis have understood that our humour, food, culture, traditions and shared lived experiences outweigh the obligation to 1947 semantics.
From queer icon Poo in Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham to drooling over Fawad Khan, queer desis have understood that our humour, food, culture, traditions and shared lived experiences outweigh the obligation to 1947 semantics.
14/
I am relentless in my support for the Indian LGBTQ community and the love I have for my country of birth. Queer desis have always had each others backs. Borders and political differences will never change that. 🇮🇳🏳️🌈🇵🇰
I am relentless in my support for the Indian LGBTQ community and the love I have for my country of birth. Queer desis have always had each others backs. Borders and political differences will never change that. 🇮🇳🏳️🌈🇵🇰
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