To understand this project, readers must first understand the South Asian diaspora and the long existence of the Queer South Asian community. One of the biggest critiques against the Queer South Asians is that queerness is an inflitration of the South Asian culture by “western perversity”, but it is key to understand that South Asian queerness has existed and been culturally translated for centuries under different labels that describe the spectrum of sexual deviance seen in the south asian community– such as shomokami ( homosexuality) or hijra (a centuries old community of transgender, intersex, or eunuch people). 

The fight for representation for Desi queers has been spanninng decades within the City. 

In NYC, specifically, we see the existence of South Asian queer organizations such as Shomokami, a Bangladeshi LBTQ+ organizing, or Trikone– which directly translates to “triangle”, a reference to the Nazi effort to idendity and eliminate queerness through the upside-down pink triangle– a non-profit organization working toward Desi queer rights originally started in the Bay Area in California. This project will be specifically focusing on the South Asian Lesbian Gay Association (SALGA), a non-profit, volunteer organization based in NYC, working to bring awareness and aid to those who identity as queer and South Asian. 

In 1996, Indian-Canadian director Deepa Mehta released Fire, a film that depicted themes of queer intamacy and sex between two women in Delhi named after the Hindu goddesses Radha and Sita. Right-wing Hindu activists in India were enraged, attacking theaters, motivated not only be homophobia but also the notion that the movie was a vulgar and defiling rperesentation of HIndu goddesses. The riots and violence that surged from this movement encouraged the rise of a lesbian public in India. 

But protests concerning Fire weren’t contained in India alone. Protests against the violence taking place in India were held by SALGA in NYC, allowing for a lesbian emergence in the diaspora too. Throughout their protests, SALGA denounced the conjoining of sexism and homophobia with Hindu nationalism. 

In the 1990s, New York City was a source of desi queer expression and pleasure through nightclubs, house parties, and so on by allowing desi queers to experience sexual liberation. South asian queer diasporic literature and art in the US were heavily inspired by such environments. “Color Me Queer” parties were frequent in the 90s, where popular fundraising parties for the LGBTQ COMMUNITY; in fact, they are still held annually. Such parties inspired novels like Tanuja Desai Hidier’s “Born Confused” which described romances blooming from NYC queer nightlife.