Despite 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.

JessicaEva

Jessica "Jessie" Eva/


“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.’”

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Drew_Kenya

Drew Gachagua/


“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.”

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Black Virus

Black Virus/


“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.”

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MundiaPeter

Mundia Peter/


“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.”

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Pinky_Kenya

Pinky/


“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.”

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Nigeria-EdafeOkporo

Edafe Okporo/

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“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.”

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Kamau

Kamau Njoroge/


“Realization that who you are is an illegal unnatural crime…punishable by law..an abomination in the eyes of religious people was just overwhelming…”

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EM

EM/


“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.”

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Jazmine_Kris

Jazmine and Kristopher/


“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.”

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wlii-c-210831-Brazil-Ni

Ni/


“Brazil is one of the Most deAdly places yo be if youre Lgbtqai+, even if its not against the law.”

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wlii-Ntwari

Ntwari/


“Am finally out to both of my parents and I should say that wasn’t easy.”

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SardarSingh

Sardar Singh/


“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…”

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Ryan Tran

Ryan Tran/


“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.”

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Sahira Q

Sahira Q/


“As an adult, I’ve come to the realization that I no longer have time to put on masks that make other people comfortable.”

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Canada-Abby

Abby Schmetterling/


“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.”

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Canada-Jazmine

Jazmine Carter/

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“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.”

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Canada-NudePacifico

Nude Pacifico/


“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.”

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Canada-Vernon

Vernon/LOLA/


“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?”

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Sebastian Yue

Sebastian Yūe/

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“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.”

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MM8709_190306_1793

Spirit/


“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.”

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wlii-c-210122-Jordan-Aziz

Aziz/


“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.”

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wlii-c-200613-Spain-N

N/


“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.”

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Julian/

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“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.”

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wlii-c-201114-India-Q

Q/


“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?”

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Dee2

Dee/


“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”

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wlii-c-200629-Canada-GaryBeals

Gary Beals/


“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.”

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Kemi Lo

Kemi Lo/


“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.”

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Alphonso King Jr.

Alphonso King Jr., aka. Jade Elektra/


“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.”

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Christian

Christian/


“My life journey as a cis-queer Asian settler living with HIV has been one like the lotus flower.”

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Myles Sexton

Myles Sexton/


“I danced with death and it taught me that I would never know what the hope that lives in tomorrow would bring.”

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Vin

Vin/


“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.”

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Elle Wild

Elle Wild/


“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.”

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Sonali

Sonali/


“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.”

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Rolyn

Rolyn Chambers/


“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.”

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Abra

Abra/


“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.”

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Jermie Thomas

Jermie Thomas/

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“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.”

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Sumiran Kabir Sharma“I believe we play different characters every day and our life is like a film. And I have played characters when I have worked for corporate houses and an IT-BPO and dressed up in the most heterosexual clothes ever. You have to live it to realize that you do not want any part of it. Otherwise, you will never value your present self. Now I wear a saree or a backless top and take the metro and I am very cool with it. It has taken me years to identify these layers and accept my true self. In the end, it’s about fighting for your identity and what you believe in. When I did my first nude shoot, my dad blocked me on social media because he did not understand it. Usually people say that I do it to get attention; they say that for people who are different but it’s not at all about that. Sometimes I wear a burqa or a hijab and step out and it’s like a whole new world for me. Usually people watch me when I walk down the street but when I am in a burqa, no one looks at me but I am looking at everyone. The way people look at you changes.”

Sumiran Kabir Sharma/


“You have to live it to realize that you do not want any part of it.”

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KIRAN, 28

“As a child, I never felt comfortable wearing boy clothes for school. Honestly, I would have rather been naked than wear men’s clothes. My feminine mannerisms caught the attention of my entire school because of which I got bullied repeatedly. I’d find obscene drawings on my desk or get pieces of paper thrown at me with filthy things written on them. Once I was cornered in the bathroom by a bunch of boys who asked me to strip naked for them. Initially when I started getting attracted to men, I couldn’t understand it and I had noone to talk to about it. I did not know anything about sexuality. It wasn’t easy at home either. My father was always critical of me and constantly compared me to my brothers. I felt like a misfit at my school and in my family. I chose to stay isolated. I failed my 12th board exams. It became unbearable for me to continue living at home. I left my family and started looking for jobs so that I could live independently. I worked for a brief time at a hotel, from where I got fired because the director was of the opinion that my behavior and ‘sexuality’ was making the other staff uncomfortable. At this point in my life, I knew that I wanted to be a woman and I felt trapped in a man’s body. Around the same time, I fell in love with an Army man, who bought me a flight ticket to Delhi. I simply followed him with the hope that maybe things would be different with him. But my boyfriend abandoned me and left me to pay the house rent on my own. I was offered to work as a sex worker or ask for money at traffic signals but I refused. When I went for job interviews, people would ask for my ID, notice the gender and stare at me. No one wanted me as a tenant because they perceived me as a bad influence, a threat to family and children. Some of my friends spoke about NGOs that supported transgender people. That’s how I came across Naz Foundation. Initially, I just went to Naz for support group meetings or to read at their library.

Kiran/


“As a child, I never felt comfortable wearing boy clothes for school. Honestly, I would have rather been naked than wear men’s clothes.”

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Harmione2

Harmione/


“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.”

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Leon Tsai

Leon Tsai/


“‘Blossom’ not ‘Bloom’: as blossoming refers to the whole glory of blooming and not just its peak.”

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Kelsie Adelaide

Kelsie Adelaide/


“I will not grow my hair, I will not wear a dress, I will not stay indoors in windows of fleeting moments, I will be outside. Out and quiet and always proud.”

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Nikhil

Nikhil/


“I ALWAYS ENVIED PEOPLE WHO LIVED IN THOSE PARTS OF THE WORLD WHERE BEING THEMSELVES WAS COMPLETELY NORMAL, UNTIL I LEFT MY OWN LAND IN SEARCH OF ACCEPTANCE.”

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Ali

Ali/

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“In the context of young unaccompanied refugees, whose asylum and integration processes are often characterised by uncertainty, misunderstanding and feeling lost, in fact Ali Nasari’s life also seems to be extraordinary, extraordinarily stable.”

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Rohita

Rohita/


“Our lives are our own to live. The contentment we get from living life the way we want to is more important than how others view our way of living.”

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Ravi

Ravi/


“To all my trans brothers, I would only urge you to be your true self and never give up on the hope of living your life to the fullest. You don’t need anyone else’s validation.”

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