Love, identity and reckoning: Being queer and in love in Allahabad

“I got sick of the intense pressure to get married and finally told my mother that I have no interest in girls. You know what her retort was? ‘Why? Do you like boys then?’”

Deepak chuckles as he remembers how his courage failed him when he almost told his mother he was queer. But this self-acceptance was a long time in the making, growing up as he did in Jagatpur, a small village in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh.

What really helped him understand himself better was the Allahabad-based Resistive Alliance for Queer Solidarity, or RAQS, an artist-activist organisation that works with the #LGBTQ community on issues like #gender, #sexuality, and #mentalhealth.

A #ValentineDay special dispatch from the city of the #Kumbh.

Read the full article: https://www.newslaundry.com/2020/02/14/love-identity-and-reckoning-being-queer-and-in-love-in-allahabad

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