I am delighted to share with you, my AJWS friends, that I got married at the end of last year. For many of us, marriage sounds like a common milestone—but it was unthinkable for someone like me in most parts of the United States until 2015, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that all states …
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As dusk turned to night in Chiang Mai some weeks ago, I felt adrenaline coursing through my body as thousands of people poured onto the streets of this city in northern Thailand for the country’s biggest LGBTQI pride march in a decade. At the same time, my mind was flooded with memories of Pride …
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“You may have heard that Thailand is a paradise for transgender people. We have the beauty queens. The cabaret shows. But you don’t see the negative side of how we’re treated. And I want to make sure my sisters don’t experience what I went through.” It’s a Saturday in central Bangkok, and Jetsada Taesombat, better …
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I am elated today because our grantee partners in India have achieved an historic victory for LGBTQI+ rights. Earlier today, the Indian Supreme Court struck down a colonial-era law that criminalized consensual sex between same sex adults. As India is home to nearly one-fifth of the world’s population, this single ruling removes the threat of …
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I came out to my father in 1998, over the phone. He was in Bombay, India. I was in Denver, Colorado. The first thing he said to me, without missing a beat, was: “I’m proud that you’ve decided to not live a lie.” The very next thing he said was: “I wish you’d never told …
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