Our stories: Kazi

I am Kazi. I am friendly, fun-loving, passionate about photography and love to observe people surrounding me by visiting various places as a tourist. I was born in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh.

During my childhood, I was a shy and calm person. I always chose my friends very carefully. When I was 13, I felt so many physical and mental changes in my body. My class mates always talked about beautiful girls, but I never felt any physical attraction to them…on the other hand, I was attracted to handsome boys . I tried to talk about my feelings to one of my classmates and he took it as joke, so I decided not to share my feelings with anyone again.

After few years, when I started my Dentistry course, I met my first boyfriend – my study partner. But because our parents were religious, that relationship did not work.

After becoming a Dentist I got an opportunity to pursue my higher studies in London. My parents forced me to marry an unknown woman on the understanding that only then would they help me to pay my tuition fees. I came to London as a student with a hope that now I would be free as a bird and finally able to express my feelings with my friends here. I started to visit so many clubs and enjoy my social life as a gay person.

But after a few months, my wife came to London to stay with me and I again became upset and confused about what to do. I told her about my sexuality and we could not maintain our relationship. She went back to Bangladesh and sent me a divorce letter. Her family filed a case against me which made me even more scared about going back to my country. My parents disowned me.

In spite of having so many troubles, for the last few years I have had a fantastic relationship with my boyfriend, who I now live with. I love being a member of Say It Loud Club, and proudly take photographs of all of the club events.

In the future I want to be busy finding and helping other people who cannot express their sexuality. I also want to keep helping refugees and motivating them by arranging various meetings to maintain a good social life.

I believe that one day my country will accept me as a gay man, and I can established a healthy LGBTQ+ community over there, like in London.

As an LGBTQ+ activist I can proudly say that I am gay.