Do we all want to get down with the brown?

In our latest poll, we wanted to see how color blind queer desis are when it comes to our love lives. The results are are worth discussing. The bulk of voters fell in two categories, those who consider themselves completely colorblind and those who are generally colorblind, yet prefer dating South Asians.

It's refreshing to see that so many people don't discriminate; racism in the gay world is a whole other can of worms. What is interesting is that so many of us prefer dating within our own community. However, we are forced to ask ourselves, it this trend really surprising?

Queer or straight, many of us grew up with mothers, fathers, aunties, and uncles all bombarding us with the same command -- to marry someone in our community. Interracial coupling is still largely stigmatized by South Asians, saved often for kitchen gossip. It should be no surprise that we too internalize the racial standards our families expect of our partners. And while ten years ago, you'd be hard pressed to find one queer desi to date, today there are growing networks of us. Some can argue that by dating other queer desis, we are satisfying both our gay and South Asian communities.

Does bringing home a brown partner cushion the blow to our parents? Is mother more likely to accept your girlfriend is she understands Hindi and enjoys chole pathura? In the South Asian community, where parental acceptance is often key, can race trump sexuality? We'd love to hear what you think.

Muslims Found to be Most Conservative

A recent Gallup poll quantified what we pretty much already knew: the Muslim community can be very conservative. Check out the results below.




Moral issues divide Westerners from Muslims in the west

Sometimes Size Does Matter...

This week, Queeristan wanted to know how you feel about the size of your queer desi community. The majority of voters (40%) were dissatisfied with the extent of their LGBT desi groups, however about 20% found theirs to be sufficiently large.

As the visibility of gay South Asians increase, the number of support groups for us continue to swell. Cities like New York, Chicago, DC, London, and Bombay have mobilized organizations focused on serving the needs of queer desis. However, those not in such metropolitan centers are often starved of this sort of support network; in many cases the Internet plays a role in filling that void.

However, what is surprising is that a good chunk (32%) of those who voted are unaware of any queer desi community. Why do you think that is so? Do we all even need a such a specific group, should we just communicate with the larger queer and South Asian communities respectively? This is a small part of the ongoing discussion at Queeristan revolving around the concepts of belonging and displacement - what are you thoughts?

Peekaboo, I See you! Who's Out?

Our intent with queeristan is to increase the visibility of the queer South Asian community all over the world and reach out to each other, especially those who may not have the support in whatever region of the world they're in. Out of all the voters, surprisingly only 4% of us were out to absolutely no one. Even more suprising is that a majority of the polltakers are completely out (39%) or coming out is not an issue (18%). One day, hopefully, it can get to the point where your sexuality is not a big deal and it's not an issue for anyone.
More of us are out to our friends versus out to our families and coming out to families can be one of the toughest things. We made one mistake though! We forgot to put the option of out to "some family, some friends."
Only 43 of you voted in this poll, so it's not a great reflection of the worldwide gay desi community, but it does give us an idea of who is relying on us for their queer news. We want to reach out to more of you who may not be out yet or cannot be out. Feel free to leave comments on any of our posts, including this one. We <3 feedback!

You're not white? I can deal with that. Not straight either? Oh...

Queer South Asians living in the West have generally been forced to develop a dual-identity. While growing up, there were no LGBT South Asian groups. We were alone. When we were with the Desis, we down-played the queer. And within the gay community, we were subjected to that unspoken racial hierarchy that we all know exists. As a consequence of being a so-called double minority, we were often forced to identify with one group more than the other in an attempt to keep from being left behind.

But, fifty of you voted*, and showed us that our fairly new community is rebounding. Interestingly, more of us identify with being Desi over being queer. And about half of us are able to relate to both- a pleasant surprise. Slowly, we WILL reclaim both of our identities. And turn the two into one.

*Obviously, a poll taken by only fifty people isn't enough to make any serious conclusions out of. But it's a start!