Queeristani Travels -- A Humid Hello

Hello fellow Queeristanis, this is Samsaricanu writing all the way from Delhi on this humid June morning. So, I've decided to blog about my observations of queer identity during my recent travel to the motherland. I hope to use this platform as a way to gain some insight and deepen my own understanding of what it means to be gay and South Asian.

To preface this, let me tell you a little more about myself. I'm a second-generation immigrant who identifies pretty equally as a gay male and South Asian-American. I feel I have a healthy balance of my multiple cultures and have reconciled the majority of conflicts many of us queer desis face. I came out to my friends long ago, but my family has only known for about two years. My parents have been far more understanding as I imagined, but tolerance does not always equate to respect. Nevertheless, part of my extended family in India now knows and has since been vainly persuading me to change my ways.

That said, I have traveled to the motherland frequently during my childhood and adolescence; my time there is normally spilt between my relatives in Delhi and Calcutta Kolkata. In recent years, I have become increasingly aware of both the subcontinent's respect for diversity and its blatant, often violent heterosexism. I want to use this recent trip as a way to explore South Asian views on queer issues on a first-hand basis. If any of you readers have comments or suggestions, email me at queer.desis@gmail.com or just leave a comment on the posts!