Ankur Paliwal is an independent journalist, and founder and managing editor of queerbeat.org – a collaborative journalism and research venture focused on accurately covering LGBTQIA+ communities in India. Before starting queerbeat in late 2022, he primarily wrote deeply-reported longform stories about science, inequity and LGBTQIA+ communities. Ankur has reported from India, Ethiopia, Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Germany and the United States for publications such as Nature, Scientific American, The Guardian and FiftyTwo. He is also a consulting editor with CNN’s As Equals project, editing a series on non-binary people in the global south. Ankur has been awarded reporting grants by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Alfred Friendly Press Partners, GroundTruth Project, and Medicines Sans Frontiers, among others. He is the recipient of multiple journalism awards including One World Media Award in 2023, AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award in 2022, South Asian Journalists Association Award in 2022, and World Health Assembly Award in 2016. Ankur is dog Terry’s dad, and they live in New Delhi, India.
Shikha Aleya (SA): Ankur, hi, and it’s great to have you here! Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed for this issue of In Plainspeak. Diving straight into the first question, what, to you, is the essence of queering? What could queering, as a way of life, possibly contribute to the world as it is?
Ankur Paliwal (AP): Queering to me is thinking, being, living and loving outside societal norms. Queering, as a way of life, breaks, challenges and expands the norms that limit human expressions. Often it can also help people see themselves in your queering and affirm their realities. We all look to each other to find validation of our complex experiences. When there is enough queering in the world, provided it can be safely expressed, it can also spark public conversations, make them more inclusive, which then can help build empathetic and inclusive societies.
SA: You live a rich, fascinating fusion of themes. There’s science, next to storytelling, the lived experience of LGBTQIA+ communities, along with nature and human health. What is it like to be Ankur as you wake up and process it all, from Darwin, through wolves, to sexual fluidity?
AP: What a lovely question! I never thought about my life and work this way. A part of me wants to say that I am interested in many things but that’s probably not entirely true. The beauty of Journalism as a field is that it allows you to explore and question many things, which I took the advantage of. I have been a journalist for over 13 years now. Looking back, I can see how my interests shifted over time. Initially, I was exploring different themes to see which ones I really enjoy and I am naturally curious about. I figured that I would write about anything as long as I get to explain or unpack something complex, which is why I always did magazine writing and not news writing.
Over time, I found myself gravitating toward stories that were about under-reported people, places and subjects. As I progressed in my career, I found myself questioning why certain communities continue to be under-represented in the media, who gets to be a protagonist in a story and why, and how journalists make those choices. If you pick up any of my stories in the last 5-7 years, whether I reported from a coal mine in India, streets of Ghana or from a corn field in Ethiopia, you will see that they are essentially about the experiences, lives and choices of historically marginalized communities and how those experiences are shaped by larger sociopolitical structures and developments in the world. Maybe that’s because, growing up, I felt invisible in the stories I was reading.
SA: That is a fascinating glimpse into how you approach life, thank you! Ankur, in this article based on your personal experiences, I was struck by this description of you taking charge of yourself when you tried to fit in as a teen, “To remind myself, I started keeping slips of paper that read, Walk like a man.” That was then. Today, what would you say to young people, about being a man, a woman, an any identity – a person? What would you suggest that the slips of paper say today?
AP: Ah! Those slips of paper. Something I just cannot forget. It is hard for me to say what those slips of paper should say today because what I wrote in them was a result of the queerphobic and heteronormative culture around me. A culture I couldn’t fight alone so my best option was to fit in to survive.
Today, I want to tell young people to be themselves, express themselves however they like, and not be afraid but I doubt this kind of advice flies when you live in oppressive cultures. That is why my bigger goal, as a journalist and founder of queerbeat, now is to figure out ways to bring about an inclusive public discourse that reduces deep-rooted cultural prejudices and discriminatory practices against those who have been pushed to the margins by patriarchy. I want that the stories that queerbeat and I tell today function as those slips of paper that people carry in their psyche to remember to keep making choices and decisions, however big or small, that make their immediate world less unequal.
SA: Thank you! Please share insights from the queerbeat Youth Storytelling Project. When you take a step back and look at the possibilities revealing themselves from this space, what do you see?
AP: I am incredibly proud of queerbeat’s Youth Storytelling Project. It is a super diverse cohort. It is amazing to see how the cohort supports each other and there is learning as a collective. It’s a space where they laugh together and can be vulnerable. Much of this space they have created on their own without much intervention from our side. Before I talk about the possibilities from this space, I want to say that it has been enriching for me to see how today’s youth constantly hold you accountable for what you promised and what they expect from you. They don’t let you off the hook!
As for possibilities, I am already seeing some really powerful and intersectional pieces coming out from this cohort – largely informed by their lived experiences. I am certain that these pieces will engage the audience – help some of them see themselves in these stories and push others to reflect to build an ecosystem of empathetic allies.
This was the first Youth Storytelling Project. There have been so many leanings for us. I am already trying to figure out resources to be able to launch the second cohort of the Youth Storytelling Project.
SA: This last question is from me as dog Dusty’s parent, and from the dog-friendly team at TARSHI – for you, dog Terry’s dad. Would you say that when we consciously, respectfully, integrate the world of creatures and plants into our lives, we gain a different set of perspectives and life skills? Can this help make the world a safer, more inclusive place, for us all?
AP: Absolutely! I cannot even imagine my life without Terry. He has been with me in the loneliest times of my life. I believe integration of pets and plants in our lives and workspaces, brings more joy and it makes you appreciate all kinds of lives around you and their relevance in your life. All of which just makes our world richer in more ways than we can imagine.
Cover Image: Photo by Dikshant Sehrawat.
