Our Team
Tara Gonsalves (she/her/they/them)
Tara was born and raised in Ohio and comes from a South Indian (Mangalorean) family. Over the past decade, she has worked with queer South Asian communities in Bangalore, New York, and now in the Bay Area, including serving on the board of SALGA-NYC. Currently, she is pursuing a Ph.D. in Sociology at UC Berkeley, and her research examines the circulation of gender and sexuality norms transnationally. She lives in Berkeley, California with her partner, Rebecca, and their 1-year-old, Naya.
Navid Ladha (he/him/his)
Navid is Pakistani-American and was raised in the Ismaili Muslim Community in Dallas, Texas. Professionally, he has worked in and around higher education for the past ten years. He currently lives in Austin, Texas with his husband and works for a non-profit that provides a pathway and support for working adults to return to college and complete their degree. Over the past ten years, Navid has been involved in various QT South Asian and API spaces including being a past steering member for Salga NYC and KhushATX while currently serving on the Board of Directors for NQAPIA.
Kk Naimool (ALL pronouns)
Kk is an Indo-Caribbean transplant, born in Trinidad & Tobago. They are passionate about creating safe spaces for all, and are an activist by necessity. Kk is currently the Director of Operations at the National LGBT Cancer Network, and the Membership Coordinator for the CDC's LGBT tobacco-related and cancer health disparity network. They also occupy leadership positions on the Steering Committees/Boards of various non-profit and grassroots initiatives uplifting communities of color. Notably, they have been a past steering member of SALGA-NYC and have created, and facilitated, many workshops with various QT API organizations, regionally and internationally.
Milap Patel (he/him/his)
Milap is a Kenyan of Indian origin who moved to the US 10 years ago and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. He has program management and research experience in international development and human rights nonprofit organizations. He has previously been involved with SALGA-NYC and Khush DC and currently serves on the board of NQAPIA as well as several other national and international organizations focused on LGBTQ and social justice issues.
Sumon Ray (ALL Pronouns)
Sumon is a native of Atlanta, Georgia with family origins in India and Bangladesh. Currently, Sumon works for a global health NGO, specifically in communications and public relations. Outside of the global health sphere, Sumon is passionate about creating spaces that encourage queer and trans Asian visibility. Sumon believes that DesiQ Diaspora is an important step towards understanding and documenting the many queer and trans Desi experiences.
Khudai Tanveer (they/them)
Khudai is a Pakistani born southerner from Richmond, VA. They identify as a queer, muslim, fat, femme, immigrant, youth of color. Currently working as the Organizer on staff of the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA) they strongly believe in bringing the most marginalized/ ostracized folks to the forefront of conversations. That is what brought them to organizing DesiQ Diaspora. Bringing together South Asian & Indo-Caribbean queer folks together to build community, power and joy in a collective movement space to push the work needed forward in an intentional way.
Feroza syed (She, HER)
Feroza is a US born daughter of Indian Immigrants. She identifies as a trans woman. She transitioned almost two decades ago. She’s an activist and advocate for TGNC rights in the Atlanta area. In addition to being a successful real estate broker, she sits on the LGBTQ Advisory Board to the Mayor of Atlanta, and is one of Atlanta’s 2019 Pride Marshalls. DesiQ Diaspora is important to her because growing up in the South, she didn’t have a sense of community.
DESIQUEER DIASPORA ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Saurabh Bajaj
Suman Chakraborty
Debanuj Dasgupta
D’Lo
Aditi Hardikar
Sahar Shafqat
Javid Syed