YOUR FAVOURITE MTV SHOWS ARE NOW AVAILABLE ON PARAMOUNT+

Orlando: Why This Tragedy Has Made Me Realise I Have To Be Unashamedly Myself

"How can love be wrong?"

Being an atheist cis-gendered gay British-born Iranian man who spent part of my youth growing up in a post-revolution Tehran I have a natural aversion to even the slightly fanatical religious of any faith group. But what happened in Orlando is not about Islam. It was the action of one person – not a religion. It’s about real people, human beings, brothers and sisters living their lives free of the threat of violence.

As the hours went by and news headlines started to say that it was a “Muslim terrorist attack”, I scanned my timeline and realised how much I’ve taken my gayness for granted. I have spent most of my life priding myself on “passing” under the radar, especially around the Asian, and particularly the Muslim, communities. I have never hidden it, but I’ve also not flown the flag of Pride. I’ve dismissed Pride events for years now, feeling a deep-rooted shame that I can be gay and invisible, and that’s the way it should be. I don’t need to parade my gayness and make other people uncomfortable. That’s called being confrontational. Live and let live. Yet this is exactly this mentality on the other side that has let things go this far.

For every person who sat on the sidelines and said “It’s fine for you to be gay, but it’s against my religion”, and has let friends and family members continue to believe that a whole section of society are not worthy of the same compassion, understanding, empathy and love… this is where we are today. WAKE UP!It has taken a tragedy this immense for me to realise that the most important thing I can do right now is to be me, unashamedly.

Being gay is not wrong. Whatever your religion. As I told my mother when I came out: “How can love be wrong?”. Our biggest challenge as a community is to face this incredibly paralysing fear of facing the people who want to do us harm. This feeling never ever leaves us. We must accept ourselves for the better of our community. We must stand together to protect and embrace others who face prejudice and recognise that we ultimately want the same thing: to be able to live our lives as peacefully and lovingly as possible.

I’m feeling a mixture of emotions. I’m angry, scared, reckless, sad and sorry. We can not, and WILL NOT let this divide us against each other as human beings.

- AriaAlagha

Latest News