Alyy Patel

Last updated
Sonali (Alyy) Patel
Alyy Patel at Pride Toronto 2019.jpg
Patel at Pride Toronto's 2019 Parade
Born
Sonali Patel

1996 (age 28–29)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Other namesAlyy Patel
Education University of Toronto (BA);
University of Ottawa (MA);
University of British Columbia (PhD)
Occupations
  • Canadian LGBTQ+ Activist
  • Sociologist
  • Author
  • Public Speaker
Known forSouth Asian-Canadian LGBTQ+ Activism,
Pioneering Research on Queer South Asian Women in Canada [1]
Notable workBrown Girls Can't Be Gay: Racism Experienced by Queer South Asian Women in the Toronto LGBTQ Community (2019);
Don't Tell My Parents: Queer Diasporic Truths (2022)
Website alyypatel.com

Sonali Patel, also known as Alyy Patel, is a Canadian LGBTQ+ activist. She is best known for her research, advocacy, and public speaking engagements concerning the issues and experiences of Queer South Asian Women in Canada. [2] Patel has made monumental strides for Queer South Asian diaspora in the Canadian LGBTQ+ movement. [3] Patel is among the first to academically theorize and advocate for the culturally unique discrimination against Queer South Asian Women in North American LGBTQ+ Communities. Patel is a pioneer of research on Queer South Asian Women in Canada. [4] Patel first coined the acronym 'QSAW' to abbreviate 'Queer South Asian Women' as a group or collective identity. [5]

Contents

Patel rose in prominence upon the publication of her article "Brown Girls Can't Be Gay:" Racism Experienced by Queer South Asian Women in the Toronto LGBTQ Community" (conducted in 2018, published in 2019). [3] In 2019, Patel founded a grassroots organization, the Queer South Asian Women's Network (QSAW), which works to mobilize, visibilize, and connect gender-marginalized LGBTQ+ South Asians in Canada. [6] In 2020 and 2024, Patel made Toronto LGBTQ+ history as the first speaker of South Asian descent at Pride Toronto's Dyke March. [7] In 2023, Patel was recognized as one of Top 7 South Asians in Canada for her trailblazing efforts in systemic changemaking. [8] Patel is the author of Don't Tell My Parents: Queer Diasporic Truths.

Early and personal life

Patel grew up in Halton Region, Ontario. She is born to parents of Indo-African Gujarati descent. She has been involved in community volunteering initiatives focused on social justice from a young age.

Patel lies extensively about surviving intimate partner violence in lesbian relationships, dedicating her first book to this topic. [9] She also speaks and writes about balancing both LGBTQ+ and South Asian identities through her activism, public speaking engagements, and academic research. [3] [9] [10]

Career

Research on Queer South Asian Women

In 2018-19, Patel pioneered Canadian research on Queer South Asian Women's issues. [11] Patel's research initially examined the culturally unique forms of racial discrimination against queer South Asian women in North American LGBTQ+ communities. This was followed by research on the institutional mechanisms that reinforce the exclusion and invisibilization of queer South Asian women in LGBTQ+ communities. [12] Patel's later, award-winning research focuses on second-generation queer South Asian women's experiences in the sexual minority closet. [13] [14] She publishes her research under her legal name, Sonali Patel. She is a sociologist by academic training. [15]

LGBTQ+ Activism

Patel is a trailblazing LGBTQ+ activist, who has made monumental strides for Queer South Asian Women in North America. In 2019, Patel solely founded the Queer South Asian Women's Network to mobilize the needs of gender-marginalized LGBTQ+ South Asians in Canada. [16] Through this organization, Patel brought together a community of queer South Asian women across the diaspora, making Patel a prominent figure in the formation of a distinct community for queer South Asian women. [17]

From 2022-24, Patel hosted the largest annual community picnic and nightclub party for LGBTQ+ South Asian women in Toronto. [17] She has also organized similar events in Vancouver, Ottawa, and Montreal, bringing together queer South Asian women locally. From 2021-24, Patel organized the largest virtual speed friending events for Queer South Asian women, trans, and nonbinary people. [16]

In addition to community organizing, Patel advocates for LGBTQ+ South Asian women's inclusion through podcasts, speeches, consulting organizations, and her social media platforms. Other notable initiatives for LGBTQ+ South Asians include co-founding the Queer Gujarati Parivaar for the LGBTQ+ Gujarati diaspora in 2021. [9]

Patel's LGBTQ+ activism is not limited to LGBTQ+ South Asians. In 2015, Patel coordinated the first LGBTQ+ Pride in Halton Region with the Positive Space Network. Between 2014-2018, Patel advocated for queer inclusion and coordinated several LGBTQ+ initiatives as a student activist at the University of Toronto, including (but not limited to): lobbying for gender-neutral washrooms, co-chairing the End the Ban campaign, etc. [18]

Influence

As an LGBTQ+ South Asian trailblazer, Patel has been invited to speak at over 50 events, organizations, and schools, such as the International Film Festival of South Asia, Pride Toronto, Wattpad, Ontario Government, University of Toronto, and more. In 2023, Patel appeared on Amazon Prime Video's Pride Campaign in downtown Toronto's Yonge–Dundas Square. [19]

Alyy Patel Dyke March 2024.jpg

In 2020 (and again in 2024), Patel was the first South Asian speaker at Pride Toronto's Dyke March, highlighting the inequalities faced by Brown lesbians. [20] In 2022, Patel was the first queer South Asian speaker at the Ontario Government's Pride Flag Raising Ceremony. [21]

Patel's research, activism, and creative work are highly influential in rethinking intersectional inclusion in the context of LGBTQ+ identities (i.e., changing dominant conceptions of what a lesbian looks like). [11] [12] [13]

Author

In 2022, Patel published her first poetry book Don't Tell My Parents: Queer Diasporic Truths. She went on her Canada-wide book tour in 2024.

Awards and honours

Works

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dyke march</span> Lesbian-led gathering and protest march

A dyke march is a lesbian visibility and protest march, much like the original Gay Pride parades and gay rights demonstrations. The main purpose of a dyke march is the encouragement of activism within the lesbian and sapphic community. Dyke marches commonly take place the Friday or Saturday before LGBTQ pride parades. Larger metropolitan areas usually have several Pride-related happenings both before and after the march to further community building; with social outreach to specific segments such as older women, women of color, and lesbian parenting groups.

The bisexual community, also known as the bi+, m-spec, bisexual/pansexual, or bi/pan/fluid community, includes members of the LGBTQ community who identify as bisexual, pansexual, omnisexual, polysexual and sexually fluid. As opposed to hetero- or homosexual people, people in the bisexual community experience attraction to more than one gender.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha</span> Canadian-American writer

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha is a Canadian-American poet, writer, educator, and social activist. Their writing and performance art focuses on documenting the stories of queer and trans people of color, abuse survivors, mixed-race people and diasporic South Asians and Sri Lankans. A central concern of their work is the interconnection of systems of colonialism, abuse and violence. They are also a writer and organizer within the disability justice movement.

Gary William Kinsman is a Canadian sociologist. Born in Toronto, he studies lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues. In 1987, he wrote a text on LGBTQ social history, Regulation of Desire, reprinted in 1995. In 2000, he edited and co-authored a second work, on Canadian federal government surveillance of marginal and dissident political and social groups, Whose National Security? In 2010, Kinsman's newest book, The Canadian War on Queers: National Security as Sexual Regulation, co-written with Patrizia Gentile, was published by University of British Columbia Press and released on 1 March.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pride House</span>

Pride House is a dedicated temporary location which plays host to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) athletes, volunteers and visitors attending the Olympics, Paralympics or other international sporting event in the host city. The first was organized for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Her (dating app)</span> Dating app for lesbian, queer, bisexual and straight women and non-binary people

Her is a dating and community app for the lesbian, queer, bisexual and sapphic community. It was designed for women; non-binary people; and transgender people. It is available for iOS and Android.

This is a timeline of notable events in the history of non-heterosexual conforming people of South Asian ancestry, who may identify as LGBTIQGNC, men who have sex with men, or related culturally-specific identities such as Hijra, Aravani, Thirunangaigal, Khwajasara, Kothi, Thirunambigal, Jogappa, Jogatha, or Shiva Shakti. The recorded history traces back at least two millennia.

This is a timeline of notable events in the history of non-heterosexual conforming people of Asian and Pacific Islander ancestry, who may identify as LGBTIQGNC, men who have sex with men, or related culturally-specific identities. This timeline includes events both in Asia and the Pacific Islands and in the global Asian and Pacific Islander diaspora, as the histories are very deeply linked. Please note: this is a very incomplete timeline, notably lacking LGBTQ-specific items from the 1800s to 1970s, and should not be used as a research resource until additional material is added.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of LGBTQ topics</span>

The following outline offers an overview and guide to LGBTQ topics:

Shamakami was an early organization of South Asian lesbians and bisexual women based in the United States. They published a newsletter of the same name between June 1990 and February 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LGBTQ culture in Vancouver</span>

Vancouver's LGBT community is centered on Davie Village. Commercial Drive has historically acted as a gayborhood for the Vancouver lesbian community. Historically, LGBT people have also gathered in the Chinatown and Gastown neighborhoods. Former establishments include Dino's Turkish Baths, a gay bathhouse on Hastings, and the city's first drag bar, BJ's, on Pender Street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sher Vancouver</span> LGBTQ South Asian charity in Vancouver

Sher Vancouver is a registered charity in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer South Asians and their friends. The full name of the organization is the Sher Vancouver LGBTQ Friends Society. The society was originally founded as an online Yahoo group for LGBTQ Sikhs in April 2008 by social worker Alex Sangha of Delta, B.C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Sangha</span> Canadian social worker and documentary film producer

Alex Sangha is a Canadian social worker and documentary film producer. He is the founder of Sher Vancouver which is a registered charity for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) South Asians and their friends. Sangha was the first Sikh to become a Grand Marshal of the Vancouver Pride Parade. Sangha received the Meritorious Service Medal from Governor General Julie Payette in 2018 for his work founding Sher Vancouver. Sangha's first short documentary film, My Name Was January, won 14 awards and garnered 66 official selections at film festivals around the world. Sangha's debut feature documentary, Emergence: Out of the Shadows, was an official selection at Out on Film in Atlanta, Image+Nation in Montreal, and Reelworld in Toronto. The film was the closing night film at both the South Asian Film Festival of Montreal and the Vancouver International South Asian Film Festival where it picked up Best Documentary. Emergence: Out of the Shadows also had a double festival premiere at the KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival and the Mumbai International Film Festival during the same week, where it was in competition at both film festivals for Best Documentary. The film also had an in-person and online screening at the 46th annual Frameline: San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival which is "the longest-running, largest and most widely recognized LGBTQ+ film exhibition event in the world."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the LGBT community</span> Impact of COVID-19 on the LGBTQ+ community

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted inequities experienced by marginalized populations, and has had a significant impact on the LGBT community. Pride events were cancelled or postponed worldwide. More than 220 gay pride celebrations around the world were canceled or postponed in 2020, and in response a Global Pride event was hosted online. LGBTQ+ people also tend to be more likely to have pre-existing health conditions, such as asthma, HIV/AIDS, cancer, or obesity, that would worsen their chances of survival if they became infected with COVID-19. They are also more likely to smoke.

<i>SamiYoni</i> Canadian South Asian lesbian newsletter

SamiYoni was a Canadian magazine for lesbians of South Asian descent, published between 1993–1994.

References

  1. ↑ Patel, Sonali (2019). "Brown girls can't be gay: Racism experienced by queer South Asian women in the Toronto LGBTQ community". Journal of Lesbian Studies. 23 (3): 410–423. doi:10.1080/10894160.2019.1585174. PMID   30907270. Archived from the original on September 29, 2022. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
  2. ↑ Patel, Sonali. "Meet Alyy Patel". Alyy Patel. Wix.
  3. 1 2 3 Mann, Samantha (31 July 2020). "Meet Alyy Patel, Founder of Queer South Asian Womxn's Network (QSAW)". Bust Magazine. Archived from the original on 2024-07-17. Retrieved 2024-07-17.
  4. ↑ Patel, Sonali (29 June 2022). "The invisibility of queer South Asian-Canadians". Rabble.
  5. ↑ Patel, Sonali (2019). ""Brown girls can't be gay": Racism experienced by queer South Asian women in the Toronto LGBTQ community". Journal of Lesbian Studies. 23 (3): 410–423. doi:10.1080/10894160.2019.1585174. PMID   30907270. Archived from the original on 2022-09-29. Retrieved 2022-09-29– via Taylor & Francis Online.
  6. ↑ "Queer South Asian Women's Network". QSAWnetwork.com. Queer South Asian Women's Network. Archived from the original on 2024-07-16. Retrieved 2024-07-17.
  7. ↑ Patel, Sonali. "LGBTQ+ South Asian Trailblazer: Alyy Patel". Alyy Patel. Wix.
  8. 1 2 "South Asian Heritage Month Campaigns". Council for Agencies Serving South Asians. CASSA. 8 February 2023. Archived from the original on 17 July 2024. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
  9. 1 2 3 Patel, Sonali (2022). Don't Tell My Parents: Queer Diasporic Truths. Vancouver, BC: FriesenPress. ISBN   978-1-03-914497-2.
  10. ↑ Mann, Samantha, ed. (2022). I Feel the Love: An Anthology of Queer Joy. Read Furiously. ISBN   9781737175872.
  11. 1 2 Patel, Sonali (2019). ""Brown Girls Can't Be Gay": Racism Experienced by Queer South Asian Women in the Toronto LGBTQ Community". Journal of Lesbian Studies. 3 (23): 410–423. doi:10.1080/10894160.2019.1585174. PMID   30907270.
  12. 1 2 Patel, Sonali (2021). The Politics of Not Giving A Sh*t: Understanding the Invisibilization of Queer South Asian Women in Pride Toronto. University of Ottawa Research Repository (Thesis). Archived from the original on 2022-02-06. Retrieved 2024-07-17.
  13. 1 2 Patel, Sonali (2024). "Theorizing A Denial Reaction to Coming Out: Revising Goffman's Stigma through a Sexual Identity Process Model". Sociology Compass. 18 (7). doi: 10.1111/soc4.13246 .
  14. 1 2 CSA. "Best Student Paper Awards". Canadian Sociology Association. Archived from the original on 2024-07-17. Retrieved 2024-07-17.
  15. ↑ UBC, Sociology. "Graduate Students: Sonali Alyy Patel". University of British Columbia Sociology. UBC Sociology Department. Archived from the original on 2024-07-17. Retrieved 2024-07-17.
  16. 1 2 Harriman, Kirby (2023). "Futures of Queer Space in Toronto". Ontario College of Arts and Design MRP. Archived from the original on 2024-07-17. Retrieved 2024-07-17.
  17. 1 2 "About QSAW Network". QSAWnetwork.com. Queer South Asian Women's Network. Archived from the original on 2024-07-17. Retrieved 2024-07-17.
  18. ↑ Potylitsina, Veronika (17 February 2017). "ALYY PATEL: EQUITY HEROINE". Her Campus. Archived from the original on 17 July 2024. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
  19. ↑ CISION. "Amazon Canada celebrates Pride Month With #ProudToBe and the Prime Video #NotJustForShow Campaigns, in Partnership With Pride Toronto and Other Local 2SLGBTQ+ Groups". CISION. Archived from the original on 2024-07-17. Retrieved 2024-07-17.
  20. ↑ Patel, Alyy (2 July 2024). "Dyke March Speech Toronto". YouTube. Archived from the original on 17 July 2024. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
  21. ↑ "Queer South Asian Perspectives on Pride | Alyy Patel Speaks at Ontario's Pride Flag Raising Ceremony". YouTube. Queer South Asian Women's Network. 23 June 2022. Archived from the original on 17 July 2024. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
  22. ↑ DiverCity (27 January 2021). "Announcing the winners of this year's LGBTQ2S+ January Marie Lapuz Youth Leadership Awards!". DiverCity. Archived from the original on 12 February 2024. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.