
NB/
West Africa
“I am not free to be myself as the law of my country forbids same sex marriage/relationship”
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.
“I am not free to be myself as the law of my country forbids same sex marriage/relationship”
READ THE STORY“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.”
READ THE STORY“Thats always been me, Faith, a transgirl who always believe in miracle.”
READ THE STORY“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.”
READ THE STORY“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.”
READ THE STORY“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.”
READ THE STORY“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.”
READ THE STORY“Trans youth must believe that they have a better future — and that we will continue to strive for a fairer, more just society for the future generations.”
READ THE STORY“This is Mohammed B.’s story. A story of oppression, of suffering and desperation. But it’s also the story of Mohammed’s family, who could never understand him but who made him who he is today.”
READ THE STORY“I want to say thank you. It was a long, tiring and arduous journey, but now I am on a safe land.”
READ THE STORY“Being identified as a Gay Muslim Shiia follwer is more targeted and persecuted.”
READ THE STORY“Reach out, trust your talent, be open to learning, show your confidence – and you too will find places where you truly belong. Remember, talent has no gender!”
READ THE STORY“I knew that society would never acept me, no matter how much of a good person I was, so I decide that I don’t needed society approve to love myself and to be a good person. That’s what’s matter.”
READ THE STORY“I await the day when all people in our society see us as equals.”
READ THE STORY“Life is different when you are free to live your truth. For the first time in a long time, I am secure, self confident and hopeful for my future.”
READ THE STORY“‘Dancing is good. When I dance I laugh.’”
READ THE STORY“Being gay and growing up on a small island in the Caribbean wasn’t quite what i expected it to be”
READ THE STORY“‘In Africa they believe that homosexuals are the spirit of the past – they don’t believe that we are who we are.’”
READ THE STORY“I love China, but it’s hard to love when u feel unsecured, and weak.”
READ THE STORY“I clearly heard the manager tell the assistant manager that they would never promote a ‘fag’ in this department.”
READ THE STORY“Even if the authorities in Germany do not want to believe it: Coming out is not possible in Sierra Leone – you are rejected by your family, ostracized by society and hunted by extremists.”
READ THE STORY“Then our family got to know about it through the social media and newspapers. So we were ashamed in the community”
READ THE STORY“AS I ASKED MYSELF WHAT HAVE I DONE WRONG; I FOUND RELIEF IN HITTING MY HEAD ON THE BATHROOM WALL EVERYDAY.”
READ THE STORY“In Uganda there is currently not a single Safe Housing project left…With five euros we could feed someone for three weeks, with ten euros we could buy a mattress. It doesn’t take countless donors, but just a few to rebuild a safe house.”
READ THE STORY“On a warm August day in 1960, at the age of five my Devout, Irish, Catholic Mother, while teaching me how to sew on a button, told me I was gay.”
READ THE STORY“Years and years of pain, pressure of being the perfect Muslim child, anxiety and confusion, anger. All of it was calmed by one fateful night.”
READ THE STORY“The primary driver of us changing countries is to get married and be legally acknowledged as who we are.”
READ THE STORY“Growing up I’ve always known I was very different and there were virtually no trans people in the media or in the fashion industry. This made it very difficult to discover my identity as there was no representation to relate to.”
READ THE STORY“I was proudly out to my friends and endorsed LGBTQ+ rights outside the four walls of my home. However, inside those four walls, I was completely the opposite. I would never talk about sexuality, about me or my identity. I was still in the closet for my father and mother.”
READ THE STORY“I am exactly who I was always meant to be: A queer, bi-racial, HIV+ human.”
READ THE STORY“was placed in the psychiatric ward at Florida Hospital in Orlando. I couldn’t stop crying. All those feelings that I had bottled up for tens of years came rushing out all at once.”
READ THE STORY“Being a loud educated transgender woman as a lecturer I am well prepared mentally and physically that this will be a bumpy road for me.”
READ THE STORY“The many attempts to socially and racially eradicate me and then liking men – They constantly told me I was a problem – and that it should have been straight.”
READ THE STORY“Are we just here? sitting in the wind Do people see us? Do they even know we are here Screaming so loud.”
READ THE STORY“In my life, I have had two rebirths – at age 21 when I came out of the closet and at age 29 when I was diagnosed with HIV.”
READ THE STORY“I knew that I was on my 3rd strike with them. If I did anything else that they considered “gay,” I knew they’d kick me out.”
READ THE STORY“It hurt to come home and not feel home. In the United States I feel like a stranger, but here? I feel like I don’t belong at all.”
READ THE STORY“There is no one here to meet. At first, I thought there was, A name, a face, a tongue, a body”
READ THE STORY“I know i don’t have it even a fraction as bad as so many members of the lgbt+ community across the world, but it hurts just the same.”
READ THE STORY“No one tells you how complicated it is to go to a public bathroom, everyone looks at you, everyone talks about you, mocks you…”
READ THE STORY“After growing up in a rural conservative area where LGBT rights were seemingly nonexistent, I left and enlisted in the Army.”
READ THE STORY“im brown. im golden. im a child of the sun. a child of the rainbow.”
READ THE STORY“Being a gay Christian of a Pacific ethnicity was never easy. But in 2019, it got harder.”
READ THE STORY“Entering the dance world further amplified the racism, homophobia, transphobia, femmephobia, and body policing that I was already experiencing in the gay world. Who knew the dance world and Grindr would have so much in common?”
READ THE STORY“‘Gay’ did not exist in my small rural Michigan community. Only words like ‘queer’ or ‘faggot,’ with all their negative connotations.”
READ THE STORY“Sooner or later I’ll realize that I’m enough.
Sooner or later I’ll realize that the disrespect is too much.
Sooner or later I’ll say I’ve had enough.”
“I never really come out, because it’s too dangerous in my country. My country’s acceptance of homosexual is the lowest in the region.”
READ THE STORY“I tried my best to have a more accurate representation of myself in that country by wearing makeup and unisex clothing….but that had consequences.”
READ THE STORY“Free. I’m finally free. I don’t have to walk around and pretend anymore. I’m free.”
READ THE STORY“I have had joy and pain in my life but the most painful thing was having to live a lie, to hide the fact that I was gay. I still hide it for the most part as I live in a homophobic part of the world.”
READ THE STORY