Being able to be completely myself - surrounded by so many others who are both LGBTQ+ and people of colour - at @ukblackpride was a dream! 🌈🖤✊🏾 Growing up in India, I didn’t even know what the word “gay” meant until I was 9. I’d just moved to the UK and went to a summer theatre school, where a boy called his hat “so gay”. I was confused. On the way home, I asked my mum what gay meant. Funnily, when she explained it to me, I was even more confused! How could a hat be attracted to someone of the same gender? I think I’ve always found it rather embarrassing that I wasn’t more educated on LGBTQ+ identities as a child growing up in India. But I’ve now reached a point where I’m so aware of the deep-rooted impact of the British colonial rule on countries like India that I mostly feel anger about all that has been taken from us. Once a place where queerness was viewed simply as a part of human nature - where defined terminology wasn’t even necessarily required for us to understand love and sexual fluidity - India was forced into repression and bigotry by the British. The colonial law criminalising homosexuality was only repealed in 2018, and the culture is still shifting. Even today - marking 75 years since the end of the British rule and India’s independence - LGBTQ+ people in India still live in fear, still find joy in underground spaces, still hide from their families. Yesterday, as I walked around East London in my colourful non-binary glory, feeling the most myself that I’ve ever felt - and saw Indian flags and swarms of others who shared multiple cultures and communities with me - I felt seen, I felt less alone, and I felt so full of love. As much as events like @ukblackpride are still a protest - a reminder of the fact that we must advocate in solidarity with all who are most marginalised in our community and place PoCs front and centre - it’s also important that we just have spaces to be ourselves and to celebrate ourselves. To not have to explain ourselves. To take a break from fighting to survive, and just let ourselves thrive. ✨ Swipe for words I’ve written over the years on the queer and PoC experience, and hear from some queer Black legends. ➡️