
Michael/
United States
“My journey started with fear and others knowing my attraction was for boys, trying to change, trying to fit, ran away unable to accept who I was”
READ THE STORYDespite gains made in many parts of the world, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people are, in some regions, increasingly persecuted and denied basic human rights. Because bigotry thrives where we are silenced by fear, we've created this space for people to share stories of discrimination and survival. Read these stories, share them, and contribute your own. Let the world know that we will not be silent.
“My journey started with fear and others knowing my attraction was for boys, trying to change, trying to fit, ran away unable to accept who I was”
READ THE STORY“Since I had already experimented and enjoyed teenage sexual excursions with other boys, I knew that she was talking to me, and that was enough to put me in the closet.”
READ THE STORY“Now I am FREE, FREE TO BE MYSELF. I AM HAPPY!”
READ THE STORY“The homophobic behaviors I have experienced in my life have been subtle and over, intentional and unintentional”
READ THE STORY“Growing up in rural Louisiana is unlike everything in the world – beauty beyond what I can describe. But the culture surrounding me was much different.”
READ THE STORYIn many places the ‘I’ is kept separate from LGBTI. But within the I—the same way man and women can have different sexual orientation and gender identity—its the same with an Intersex person.
READ THE STORY“My junior brothers and my parents do suspect me, but I always find a way to educate them on my sexual life. They don’t really feel comfortable, but my Dad and Mum said they love me who I am and accept me the way I am.”
READ THE STORYWe are a gay couple, we are a couple together for almost 4 years, like a common couple we have gone through many problems, but love has always spoken louder.
READ THE STORY“My family beat me, so I tried to commit suicide several times. One day I fell in love with a boy who lived in Libya, so I joined him there.
I was caught by the libyen police, they wanted to kill me. They beat me and detained me for 7 days.
I had to move back to Tunis and stay away from my love…a piece of me.
He got married, even though he is gay, and it depressed me…”
“Every time I introduce myself I am asked what I have come to refer to as the ‘Annoying Inevitable Question’: ‘What does FJ Stand for?’ the selection of a name is a critical part of the transition process of a transgender individual.”
READ THE STORY“she told me to be Be-You-Tiful- be you because the real you is beautiful and you’re not here for the approval for anyone so give yourself a break and Be-You-Tiful. These words stuck with me and formed part of me in a literal sense as I had it tattooed on my chest as a reminder to myself every day when I wake up and I am preparing myself for the day ahead. This is the first time I’m speaking so candidly to such a large audience about my gender identity but at this point I really don’t care. I am Jamaican and trans is beautiful and I am beautiful.”
READ THE STORY“The crime was that I am homosexual, and the punishment was forty days in jail losing my job, and losing my partner.”
READ THE STORY“we Gay the try to kill me first; the time I come to stop theme and is was Killed by 2 Guys from my contry…”
READ THE STORY“This is the tradition. I know he will keep trying and if he doesn’t do it with his own hand one of the family members will… but I was born this way and I will die this way!”
READ THE STORY“Hold my hand, this is my reward for your courage.”
READ THE STORY“Even now when I’m on the go, I am always looking out like I will hopefully see Ntsikie.”
READ THE STORY“On day of August even Taliban get control of Afghanistan I am trying to be hide and that time also I need immediately money for myself because I need to get passport and something else For that I was gonna to my office to get my salary that I haved on office before of Taliban … READ THE STORY
READ THE STORYGrants for LGBTQI+ Photographers working in Africa, Europe, or Middle East
READ THE STORY“The man told us that if we brought a girl he could rent us only one room, otherwise we had to rent two separately. We got really upset and left there.”
READ THE STORY“My story is a story of hope, that the 17-year old me is gonna get through the trauma, the stigma, the hate, the name-calling, the anxiety of not knowing what turn my life would take…”
READ THE STORY“When she arrived, she greeted me with a kiss on the cheek and hugged me. A military man who was at the fair, I think high-ranking, saw us and immediately grabbed her phone to make a call.”
READ THE STORY“The society expects us to fit into the sex and or gender binary created by it, if it is neither male of female, then it’s an abomination.”
READ THE STORY“Between 2010 and 2014 I studied communications at the Monteavila University (a private institution in Caracas founded by members of Opus Dei), where I was taught homosexuality in anthropology classes as a mental illness…”
READ THE STORY“They took me to a nearby door that seemed to lead to a warehouse, and they told me they had to do a ‘body search.’”
READ THE STORY“I discovered writing when I was 14. It began with a couple random notebooks where I would pour everything that went through my mind onto the pages, and go on to burn them or tear the paper to shreds. It was euphoric.”
READ THE STORY“It is difficult to live here because it is illegal to be gay. If you are caught you will be beaten by a mob or the community. If your family finds out, they will not identify you as their kin.”
READ THE STORY“Slowly, I started to conceptualize we are all divine beings and that the divine is within all of us. I came to believe that the divine has no gender, it is neither male or female, it just is. If I am a part of the divine, then why should I limit myself to an expression of only the male gender.”
READ THE STORY“In high school, I attempted suicide 48 times, using pills, jumping from a bridge, cutting and carbon monoxide. I wanted to change myself but I couldn’t and that made me depressed. So, I thought I should not go on living.”
READ THE STORY“In the wider community, I am Black, to the blacks, I am African, to the community, I am gay, to the gay community, I am a refugee.”
READ THE STORY“Realization that who you are is an illegal unnatural crime…punishable by law..an abomination in the eyes of religious people was just overwhelming…”
READ THE STORY“I grew up in a very religious environment and I felt very guilty and I always denied myself. It was night after night asking God to change me.”
READ THE STORY“Me and Kris like to remind the next generation that there is indeed someone out there who will look at you as the most beautiful/handsome person in the world, someone who will share with you all their friends and family, someone who will understand you and your past without holding it against you.”
READ THE STORY“Brazil is one of the Most deAdly places yo be if youre Lgbtqai+, even if its not against the law.”
READ THE STORY“Am finally out to both of my parents and I should say that wasn’t easy.”
READ THE STORY“After being outed in 2013 all I heard was ‘if you want to be gay, go do it somewhere else.’ So, I did just that…”
READ THE STORY“Now it doesn’t matter if I am too Asian or too feminine. I am comforted to know that attraction is not rigid, but expansive.”
READ THE STORY“As an adult, I’ve come to the realization that I no longer have time to put on masks that make other people comfortable.”
READ THE STORY“Once my egg cracked (when I realized that I was trans), it hit me so hard that it was truly a matter of life and death, of transition or die.”
READ THE STORY“It is important for me to thank the trans people that fought before my time so that young trans kids like me could live in a more inclusive world.”
READ THE STORY“Explain to me how the vanguard of the queer movement were black and brown, trans souls, yet we ended up with cis, white homosexual impositions of queer culture.”
READ THE STORY“My birth name is Vernon, my performer name is LOLA, my birth city is Calgary, my home is Toronto, my heritage is Filipinx, my pronouns are they/them, for now I’m non-binary, and as for tomorrow, who knows and honestly, who cares?”
READ THE STORY“I am no closer to understanding what gender actually is, or what it means, but I have realised that I don’t actually need to know what it is. I know who I am and that is enough for me.”
READ THE STORY“i hope the human rights watch or the united nations read my story “
READ THE STORY“The first time I bought ‘man shoes’ I was terrified to wear them, I think they’re the light blue bowling shoes I have; the first time someone asked me what my pronouns were, I think it might have been @ a BreakOUT! event.”
READ THE STORY“Back in 2015, I came across Where Love is Illegal. I decided to share my story then…During the years after, I became involved in queer rights activism and became more open about who I am with those I love.”
READ THE STORY“This is not a violent or unbelievable sorry, but it is sad that even in the progressive countries which are supposed to accept diversity, coming out is too scary FOR many teenagers.”
READ THE STORY“Manhattan College refused to refund one penny. I am now thousands of dollars in debt for credits I didn’t receive and housing I couldn’t access.”
READ THE STORY“I am so angry at the histories of oppression that force so many of us to hide or risk our lives.”
READ THE STORY“Why is the public imagination of trans one that restricts itself to the conventional ‘femme’, whatever feminine is to the audience’s most violent gaze? Where are the trans masculinities, the male-passing genderqueer subject, in your idea of resilience?”
READ THE STORY“My mom threayened to kill me.i ran away.i couldnt go to my house because she threaytened to come there and attack my gf and i”
READ THE STORY“In March, I released my 1st single in over 10 years “Me For Me” from my soon to be released album (video also now out). The video depicts the struggles that we the LGBTQ+ community face when it comes to self-acceptance.”
READ THE STORY“High school was a bit weird for me. I had my group of friends and I didn’t necessarily have a bad time, but of course I encountered problems, especially the first 2 years.”
READ THE STORY“When I was single in the city I had this diner I would take my dates to disclose. This place had a headshot of me as my drag persona, Jade Elektra. I would point out the photo first. If the guy was uncomfortable with me doing drag, he probably was going to have a problem with my status.”
READ THE STORY“My life journey as a cis-queer Asian settler living with HIV has been one like the lotus flower.”
READ THE STORY“I danced with death and it taught me that I would never know what the hope that lives in tomorrow would bring.”
READ THE STORY“As the time goes by,because of the CONSTANT pressure of supressing my sexuality,I developed some masculine traits which at some point is beneficial and a disappointment sometimes.most people would find me man enough in their own shallow perception but deep inside me,I’m dying.I’m longing for acceptance,of love and affection.”
READ THE STORY“I know very well what kind of love I will tolerate + what I will not. I may not always know what I want, but I do know what I don’t want + I will always keep striving for that light.”
READ THE STORY“I am really sick of this transphobic mentality; all I want is to be perceived as a regular woman. How I look definitely comes in the way of that. Every curious stare from the strangers when I go out makes me realize that I am in a wrong body.”
READ THE STORY“In this last year my journey has awakened something that had always been within. I had always refused to believe I was different in any way from the mostly white gay men that surrounded me at many of the events I went to. Though they never said it, I was different. I was not like them.”
READ THE STORY“I am so happy, despite it taking me over 40 years, to have been able to transition and to feel happy and whole in my body.”
READ THE STORY“I had to learn that in Jamaica any kind of bonds, familial or otherwise, could immediately dissolve the moment the other person even suspected that you may be gay.”
READ THE STORY“You have to live it to realize that you do not want any part of it.”
READ THE STORY“As a child, I never felt comfortable wearing boy clothes for school. Honestly, I would have rather been naked than wear men’s clothes.”
READ THE STORY“I am just not ready to have that conversation with them yet because it will disrupt our lives, and honestly, I don’t think I ever will be.”
READ THE STORY“‘Blossom’ not ‘Bloom’: as blossoming refers to the whole glory of blooming and not just its peak.”
READ THE STORY“I realized I am in icu but hospital supported professor not me”
READ THE STORY