Indian parents struggle to hear kids say ‘I’m gay’
Nikhil Aziz never really felt like he’d come out to himself as a gay Indian man, until he came out to his parents.
He didn’t feel out the first time he went to an underground gay club in Mumbai. He didn’t feel out when he first moved to the United States, to Claremont, Calif., or to Denver, Chicago or finally to his current home in East Harlem. The moment he really felt himself was in 1998, in Eerie, Penn., when he followed the family rule: always be honest.
His mother, Shaila Hemmady, was visiting for a family reunion, and as they walked together, Aziz took his mother’s hand and simply told her, “I’m gay.”
Aziz and his parents tell this story in the new documentary “I Am,” a film about gays and their parents in India, directed by Sonali Gulati. “I Am” is currently screening in the tri-state area, and was shown at the Queens Museum of Art in Flushing in late October as part of the Cinemarosa queer film series.
Read more on the Queens Chronicle’s website.