, born Shivani Bhat , is a non-binary person, pursuing his double major in film and theatre in the University of California, Davis. Last October, the 19-year-old Bhat, an NRI, had to approach the Delhi HC to seek protection from his parents who wanted him to “become a proper girl” and had forcefully brought Bhat to live in Agra. In an interview with, Bhat speaks about the Orlando attack, being a transgender queer person of Indian origin living in the US and the support for Donald Trump among a section of the Indian American community. Edited excerpts:The shooting at the Pulse nightclub has brought about a huge wave of emotions within the community. Time and again we are made to feel excluded in the cisnormative heteronormative (view that all people are cissexual, that is they have a gender identity which is the same as their biological sex) societies, and are forced to find a community among ourselves, one that is incredibly tight-knit. My heart has been heavy since the incident, and I know hundreds of others feel the same. I can’t get the image out of my head that the police described of the deceased victims’ ringing phones filling the room, as their loved ones frantically called to ask if they were all right. It sickens me. This shooting has shown that spaces that we have made in order to feel safe and accepted can no longer be deemed ‘safe’. Queer people of colour and queer trans people of colour experience race-based oppression in addition to oppressions relating to our queerness. This hate crime was a mixture of easy access to guns, queerphobia, racial prejudice and toxic hypermasculinity.I can’t speak for the entirety of both countries, but I can speak of my own experience with the LGBTQIA+ cultures in both countries. I feel very privileged to be in a fairly liberal part of the US, as I can comfortably discuss topics (sometimes in my lecture classrooms) that would otherwise be considered taboo. The history surrounding the communities under this acronym is vastly different, and therefore the dynamics between the groups are different. However, I feel, in terms of representation in the media and the access to resources, the US is a few steps ahead of India. This doesn’t necessarily make the US better or more progressive as a whole, as it still has major conservative ideologies in charge of the law.I think the legal documentation surrounding transgender rights means well but, without the education surrounding it, positive change is going to be a slow and difficult process. When I was in India, the police that were protecting me claimed to know what ‘transgender’ was, but they misgendered me constantly and still treated me like a girl. I was also forced into the gender binary, even though the law protects non-binary individuals such as myself. The Indian legal system is left over from the British colonial rule and, as a result, it is not inclusive of all types of people. Even here in the US, our basic rights as queer-identified folks are not held to the same standards as a cisgender heterosexual (cishet) person’s are. As a bisexual non-binary transmasculine person, I am seen as an abomination by the conservative people in power. Because personal bias is always a factor in every aspect of life, people make judgements based on people they do not know and, as a result, us queer-identified people are heavily discriminated against in the social, economic and political spheres of life.I would say please be safe. If possible, try to find friends that will love and accept you regardless of your gender identity and sexual orientation. If there is one thing I learnt from my experiences, it is that there are always multitudes of people who will love and support you. I had many people I didn’t even know coming to me with words of support online and in person. There is a great pressure that cisgender heterosexual people put on us to ‘come out of the closet’ and announce who we truly are, but they do not understand that our safety and security are at stake when we do come out. We need systemic change and we can’t do it alone. We need an active approach to allyship. ‘Ally’ is not a noun. It’s not an adjective. ‘Ally’ is a verb, and we must constantly work to dismantle systems of oppression and do everything we can to prevent another act of violence, especially as devastating as this one, from happening again. As queer people, we see ourselves getting killed and/or being devastated constantly. It’s in our movies, our TV shows, in books and on the news. Everywhere we turn, we see representations of ourselves being miserable. We are in pain. We are suffering. This needs to end now.I am confused about Indians (Indian Americans as well as Indians back home) supporting Trump. Race relations don’t work the same way in India, so this might not be as evident to people, but Trump literally does not know the difference between a Hindu and a Muslim. In fact, he doesn’t care. To him, all brown bodies are filthy and unintelligent, and this can clearly be seen in how he talks about brown individuals. Whether your beliefs are conservative, moderate, or liberal, it is clearly shown that Trump’s claims are unconstitutional and not supported by any policies.He is not an intelligent man, and anyone who is smart enough to do their research will come to the same conclusion as well. His businesses have all failed, and he plans to run the US government like a business. India’s economy will collapse if the US economy collapses.India’s Islamophobia, its internalised racism (the idea that fairer skin and more European features are seen as more beautiful and valuable), its legislation and its conservative social ideology are all a result of British colonisation. These are conservative British views. Trump and his supporters are filled with hate. I would like to ask how Islam can be seen as intolerant and dangerous if Hindu conservatives are in support of a bigot that wants to deport innocent people.(Valay Singh is a freelance journalist)