Preserve Queer Bangladeshi History

A Fight Against Erasure

In 2020, we launched the Queer Archives of the Bengal Delta (QABD), a new platform led by queer activists working to preserve queer community's histories in Bangladesh and in its diaspora. As organizers, we are constantly fighting against the disappearance of our stories. For instance, during the pandemic, we witnessed an uptick in organized dating scams in Bangladesh. Small groups of men created fake dating profiles to lure gay men into ‘dates’ and then blackmailed them for money. Some of these incidents were reported to the police and media. But the victims continued to be subject to humiliation and harassment for their “unnatural dating choices. Sporadic moments like these are quick to disappear in queer memory. We are constantly erasing our own stories to avoid unwanted scrutiny and gaze. As a result, we suffer a crisis of not having a past. At QABD, we resist such erasure.

What’s in QABD’s Archive?

QABD’s archiving work began with collecting news articles, images, social media posts, and informal videos of community incidents. Over the past year, we've built a collection of over 250 items consisting of public records, journals, news articles, images, and videos documenting queer Bangladeshi life and resistance. This includes Bangladeshi trans and hijra history, critical documentation of human rights abuses, historical queer moments, and court documents in both Bengali and English. We identified, collected, catalogued, and created relevant metadata, and long-term preservation policies for these materials. In 2021, we collaborated with the South Asian American Digital Archive to collect oral history narratives of Bangladeshi queer migrants living/passing through the US. Other than archiving, we activated the archives and generated conversations through 5 community events, including art exhibitions, lectures, panels, and workshops. We published 7 articles in popular media to offer a counter-perspective to various Bangladeshi queer political issues.

Screenshot: Our Digital Archive

Now we need to permanently archive these materials, and make them available to a larger audience, and build the groundwork for further queer memory organizing.

Screenshot: Our Digital Archive

Why Do We Need 10K?

We've run the numbers, and if we raise $10,000, we should be able to:

1. Fund our critical archiving work. We hire and train Digital Archivists (DA) from Bangladesh who identify, collect, translate, and create metadata to add in QADB’s collection. Queer materials are hard to track down, and we need dedicated archivists for this work.

2. Develop a plan to preserve these materials permanently — so they can remain accessible even if our platform were ever to shut down. A portion of the fundraiser will be spent on paying monthly subscription fees for cloud storage and data maintenance fees.

3. Launch a new website featuring some of the most important materials, plus English translations. (We take safety very seriously and have developed strict protocols around which materials can be made public.)

Here's where YOU come in!

Please support us by donating any amount and sharing this request in your circles. Your money will go towards the following next year, and we will update you on our progress.

Stipend for a digital archivist: 1920 USD

Stipend for a local project manager: 2,220 USD

Website: 5,000 USD

Web maintenance: 500 USD

Cloud storage: 360 USD

Photo: Art Exhibit based on Our Collaborative Oral History Project (Moving Memories), Ohio (2022)