Dastan had never been to the new Indigo location. We called his friend who was meeting us there and we waited at the corner of an intersection for him to take us inside the building. After waiting at the corner for some time, a guy came out and showed us through a gate at an apartment complex and through a parking lot. The entrance was through a back facing building.
On the first floor was a pink sign that said “Indigo Vibes” in English. There was a large group of staff meeting with masks on the first floor, and Dastan explained to me that the first floor was for HIV testing, prevention and treatment. They were doctors, nurses and medics in a training. On the second floor were offices, and there we met some more of the Indigo staff who worked on political advocacy and community organizing.
On the third floor was the community center, which they called “Queer Lab.” There was a small library of books in one corner. One of them in English was about reconciling the Abrahamic faiths and queerness. I found a book in English called “The Divine in You” was about affirming queer identities in people through the readings of the Eastern World Religions. They also had a lot of reports about HIV in the region, mostly in Russian, as well as reports about the state of queer people in KGZ and the rest of Central Asia. There was a small kitchen with water, coffee and tea, and a bathroom. On one wall was a big mirror and above that a pink florescent lighting that said “Queer is Good.”
At that point, others had started to gather in the community room and many of them spoke English, but not fluently. Dastan explained that the meeting would start soon, and that it was an open community meeting for anyone in the public to join. The topic was “before and after coming out.” The meeting would be held in Russian, Dastan explained.
Dastan translated simultaneously for me most of the meeting by speaking softly into my ear what everyone was saying. I was very impressed! I had never had someone do a simultaneous translation like this for me before.
When I spoke, Dastan translated simultaneously: he spoke at almost the same time I was speaking to translate what I was saying into Russian. When I introduced myself, everyone clapped enthusiastically for me. It felt like a very welcoming environment.
Dastan then shared his story, which was about conversion therapy. His parents took him to a bunch of Muslim leaders who performed exorcisms on him, thinking he was possessed by an evil spirit. But now he is out and active. He was one of the founding members of Indigo, he said, and now he is totally out to everyone: family, friends and anyone else who cares to ask.
He ended the story saying that he founded Pink Summits as a way to show that “we as queer people have been through so much hardship and yet we still persevere, we still triumph, we can still do amazing things like climb Mt Everest. I wanted to show that we are strong and powerful and can accomplish great things.”
I will not share the other stories here, since they did not give me permission to do so. In summary, all of the stories involved triumph and heartbreak, love and loss. All of the stories had some positive things about them and some negative. Coming out in KGZ is not a black and white narrative where I could say “everyone in KGZ is homophobic,” like some of the stereotypes say. It’s not like that, actually most of the stories had at least some aspect of love and acceptance. Unequivocally, all of the stories were about accepting oneself, learning, self-discovery, courage, and love. Most people had exposure to some form of conversion therapy and some had been kicked out or shunned by family and friends for a time, but had been accepted by them later. Many spoke about knowing at a young age and being found out by snooping parents somehow, or else about secrecy, hiding and shame.
After that, we left and a small group of us went to a restaurant for dinner and drinks.
To be continued...
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