Beyond Cultural Diversity: Including the LGBTQ South Asian American Community

Desis for Progress
Aug 24, 2017 · 2 min read

Desis for Progress is proud to provide a space for community voices and members to write about various issues affecting the South Asian community. The opinions expressed in these original pieces belong to the author.

By Juli Adhikari

Calls for diversity in the South Asian community usually signify a diversity of religion or culture, but rarely, if ever, diversity in gender or sexual orientation. While a focus on cultural diversity is important, it often excludes the unique experiences of South Asians with intersecting cultural and gender identities. Hosting events like Desi Pride: South Asian LGBTQ Resistance, Desis for Progress (DFP) is at the forefront of intentionally changing that. Highlighting the experiences of South Asians with intersecting identities is critical to not only break down the mainstream stereotypes of what South Asians look like, but to also connect the South Asian communities’ unique interests to the broader civil rights movements. This is particularly important because South Asians of all backgrounds are at the forefront of the current civil rights fights.

Like Nikki Shah-Brar, an 8-year old South Asian transgender girl suing her school in California for discrimination on the basis of her gender identity. The first transgender student to use the California Unruh Civil Right’s Act (a law that outlaws discrimination based on sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, age, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, or sexual orientation), Nikki paves the way for transgender students of all backgrounds facing similar discrimination at their schools. However, by refusing to remain anonymous, she also challenges the myth that South Asian communities are insulated from homophobia and transphobia. That LGBTQ South Asians — and more broadly Asian Pacific Americans — don’t exist, or aren’t interested in advancing LGBTQ civil rights. This false narrative excludes LGBTQ South Asians within the South Asian American community and also precludes culturally sensitive policies from being at the forefront of the LGBTQ civil rights movement.

However, organizations like Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity continue to bridge these gaps by centering Muslim LGBTQ communities and challenging mainstream images of Muslim identities based on Islamophobia. But to build a sustainable political movement in collaboration with other civil rights advocates, we must also examine our own communities’ role in furthering discrimination. Listening to South Asians affected by multiple forms of discrimination can be a start.

Juli Adhikari is a graduating Senior at the University of California, Berkeley. She is passionate about advancing the social, legal, and economic conditions of underserved communities in the United States.

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