ABOUT
QSAW NETWORK
OUR STORY
The QSAW network was founded in August 2019 by Sonali (Alyy) Patel, a gay gender-fluid Indo-African Gujarati in the Canadian diaspora, with a desire to challenge the invisibility of Queer South Asian Women in Western LGBTQ+ communities. Alyy solely built the QSAW Network from ground-up as a passion project to combat the collective grief we experience due to our dual exile from South Asian and LGBTQ+ spaces.
Since launching, the QSAW Network has been tremendously successful in connecting our beautiful community of gender marginalized LGBTQ+ South Asians in the diaspora.
The QSAW Network is currently run by a team of community volunteers without funding. Please consider supporting our organization by donation.
MISSION
The Queer South Asian Women’s (QSAW) Network is a grassroots organization based in Canada. Our mission is to empower, visibilize, connect, and enhance a sense of belongingness amongst gender marginalized LGBTQ+ South Asian diaspora.
GOALS
COMMUNITY-BUILDING
Enhance visibility and a sense of belongingness amongst gender marginalized LGBTQ+ South Asian diaspora in Canada.
GROWING TOGETHER
Acknowledging that we can always do better, we welcome constructive conversations about how to best serve and advocate for our members.
ANTI-ASSIMILATIONIST INCLUSION
Advocate for our agency to construct culturally conducive queer identities & anti-assimilationist inclusion of QSAW in mainstream LGBTQ+ discourse.
ELIMINATE VIOLENCE AGAINST QSAW
Raise awareness of the culturally specific forms of discrimination and challenge the identity-based violence that QSAW experience in the LGBTQ+ community.
MEET THE FOUNDER
Sonali (Alyy) Patel
Sonali (Alyy) Patel is a trailblazing LGBTQ+ activist, scholar, and author, who has made monumental strides for LGBTQ+ South Asian women in North America. Alyy solely founded the Queer South Asian Women's Network, building it from ground-up into a thriving national organization. Additionally, Alyy pioneered Canadian research on Queer South Asian Women’s issues. In 2020, Alyy made LGBTQ+ history as the first South Asian speaker of Pride Toronto’s Dyke March. Recently, Alyy published their first book "Don't Tell My Parents: Queer Diasporic Truths". Alyy is a gay non-binary Gujarati from Toronto, who passionately works to build community capacity. Alyy is presently pursuing their PhD at the University of British Columbia. Their academic credentials and advocacy work specializes in discrimination against diasporic Queer South Asian Women in LGBTQ+ communities.