I’ve always known I was “different” since my adolescence. In middle school, when everyone was having crushes on boys and passing notes to each other, I started to notice how I didn’t look at boys the same way my friends did. I started to question my sexuality and immediately felt dirty and disgusting as I was taught growing up in a Muslim household that homosexuality is sinful. I also associated queerness with being white so I felt as though I couldn’t possibly be gay which resulted in a decade of internalized homophobia.

In high school, I started to learn the vernacular of the LGBTQ+ community and what queerness meant. Once I realized that it’s okay to be both brown AND queer, I decided to come out to my close friends and eventually on social media. However, I am not out to my family as I feel like my safety would be at risk.

(Q: How do you bring awareness to youth and elders in your community?)

I bring awareness by utilizing social media as a tool to express myself and my identity as being both Bangladeshi and queer. I write about experiences as well as allow other lgbtq+ folks to share their stories in my magazine, Sorjo Magazine, for and by the unconventional.

I am also the co-founder of the South Asian Queer & Trans Collective, along with my good friend, Tamanna Yousef. It is a community support group that amplifies the voices of the South Asian LGBTQ+ diaspora. I hope that by being my authentic self, it makes other folks regardless of their age, to be themselves too.