Voices of Pride creates space for queer voices that refuse restriction, dilution, or apology. Through writing, art, and lived experience, LGBTIA* creators reclaim visibility, challenge inherited norms, and speak to the realities of identity, resistance, intimacy, and belonging.

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My Name Was Once a Secret

My name was once a secret I carried like a wound.

I spoke it only inside my mind, quietly and carefully, afraid someone might discover the truth about me. As a transgender child growing up in a conservative Pashtun society near the Afghanistan border, I learned fear before I learned freedom. Patriarchy was everywhere — in the streets, in homes, in classrooms, in the way people spoke about gender, honor, and shame.

I remember constantly watching myself, trying to walk differently, speak differently, exist differently, so nobody would notice the softness inside me. Childhood did not feel safe. It felt like survival. I carried the fear of rejection all the time — fear of being insulted, beaten, abandoned, or cut off from my family and community if I became too visible.

For years, I believed silence would protect me. So I hid parts of myself to stay loved, to stay accepted, to stay alive. But hiding also created loneliness. It slowly teaches you to disappear from yourself.

Still, even in fear, something inside me refused to die.

I found pieces of belonging in poetry, dance, art, and in quiet conversations with other queer people who were also carrying hidden lives. Together, we created small spaces where we could breathe honestly, even if only for a moment.

Today, I understand that our existence itself is resistance. Saying my name out loud is something simple for many people, but for me it carries years of fear, survival, grief, and courage.

My name was once a secret.
Now it is my truth.

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About the Author

Namkeen Peshawri is a Pashtun transgender human rights activist, community organizer, and artist from Pakistan. With more than 10 years of experience in gender equality, Transgender Rights, peacebuilding, and humanitarian work, she works with marginalized communities in conservative and conflict-affected regions near the Afghanistan border. Through advocacy, storytelling, poetry, and dance, her work explores identity, survival, belonging, resistance, and queer visibility in spaces where silence is often demanded. She is the founder of Trans Support Group.

Instagram: @Trans Support Group

Linkedin: Namkeen Peshawri

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Photography

The Voices of Pride campaign features work by Elizaveta Bogachavo, drawn from the project Ephemeral Reveries through the Alchemy of Queerness. You can read more about Elizaveta and the project here.

Instagram: @lisa.bogachova

Website: www.elizavetabogachova.me

Model: ZERO

Instagram: @imageofzero