Angelique/
Anton Shebetko, Ukraine
“I’m a pansexual person and I had an inner biphobia.”
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’m a pansexual person and I had an inner biphobia.”
READ THE STORY“My father and I almost cried when we saw the Ukrainian checkpoint, it was great happiness. We were just lucky. It was very scary – cars all around were burned to the ground, crushed by tanks.”
READ THE STORY“At first she didn’t accept it, but as I grew up she decided to focus her love on who I really am and not on my orientation.”
READ THE STORY“There was a situation in Kyiv when a girl with a rainbow flag was attacked; after that we realized that we had to be ready for anything and carried pepper spray with us.”
READ THE STORY“I actually recently received some homophobic comments from my friend in Donetsk when I posted a story on my IG with a flagpole of three flags: Ukrainian, LGBTQ+ and European Union.”
READ THE STORY“I would love to return to Kyiv. It’s my home.”
READ THE STORY“My mother told me that these pigeons were a part of her that I could keep with me.”
READ THE STORY“It’s like a knot in your stomach, as if you were burning from the inside, as if you feel your heart blazing, and you say to yourself, what is happening?”
READ THE STORY“I think that to believe in something, even if you don’t necessarily believe in God, but you believe in an entity, it’s a kind of pillar and allows you to have hope in the world.”
READ THE STORY“I thank God everyday that I’m not straight. When you love someone outside of a norm, you step out of that norm. You love the person.”
READ THE STORY“My family perceived femininity in me, so they tried to contain it, to repress and expel it. Why do I dance? A boy doesn’t dance. He’s supposed to love football. I did not like football”
READ THE STORY“I think it’s Islam that saved me a little from not getting into heterosexuality”
READ THE STORY“I challenge Christians who are attacking the LGBTQIA2S community to think about the harms you are committing and ask yourself if that is something an all loving God would want.”
READ THE STORY“I am a transgender and Muslim woman, and this changes nothing about my relationship with Islam. Not with Ramadan, not with Allah, and not with my worship. There is not a single thing that has changed in this regard. I am who I am because of religion. I don’t care about the opinions from people … READ THE STORY
READ THE STORYI thank God everyday that I’m not straight. When you love someone outside of a norm, you step out of that norm. It’s a relationship to love that goes beyond something. You love the person.
READ THE STORYKwasi Darko is a 2022 Where Love is Illegal Fellowship Winner.
READ THE STORYCamille Farrah Lenain is a 2022 Where Love is Illegal Fellowship Winner.
READ THE STORYAnton Shebetko is a 2022 Where Love is Illegal Fellowship Winner
READ THE STORYWe are very proud and excited to announce the winners of the first Where Love is Illegal Fellowship! They are Camille Farrah Lenain, Kwasi Darko, and Anton Shebetko! The Where Love Is Illegal Fellowship is designed to support LGBTQI+ identifying photographers to contribute to the narratives that define queer communities. Three photographers have been awarded … READ THE STORY
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.”
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