Oral History Interview with Huhu

DESCRIPTION
Content note: description of transphobia, racism, classism, sexism, white nationalism

Huhu (pseudonym) reflects on growing up and moving between Bangladesh, the U.S., and the UK in this oral history interview. Huhu shares complex stories of family life and childhood, stories of navigating societal and family expectations. Remembering his move to the U.S. for higher education, Huhu narrates stories of student organizing such as radical poetry events, labor activism, demonstrations against the imperialist U.S. aggressions and police murders, and facing threats from white supremacists. Folded within these stories of adjusting to life in the U.S. are Huhu’s experiences in the aftermath of the 2016 murders of Bangladeshi LGBT+ activists, their exploration of sexuality and relation to toxic masculinity, their memories of racism within the international student community and broader American communities, memories of struggling with internalized racism and coming into feminism.

Huhu delves into memories of coming out to his family and the subsequent rejection from his progressive father. Upon returning to Bangladesh, Huhu organizes with the LGBT+ community to challenge sexism, bullying, and harassment. He grapples with rage, loneliness, depression, health issues, dysphoria, being outed, and complexities of queer friendships and community building with Bangladeshi trans people. Navigating the odds, Huhu co-organizes events on queerness, community-based art, feminism, colonialism, and the climate crisis. Huhu also reflects on their experiences with Bangladeshi mental health service providers. Distinguishing between the subversiveness of QTPOC politics in the U.S. and in Bangladesh, Huhu shares the complexities of NGO politics centered around donors and foreign delegates and the Bangladeshi left’s complex relation to queer politics. Huhu reminisces about moving to the UK for higher education and shares memories of working on healing and building a queer brown community. In this wide-ranging oral history, Huhu reflects on being interviewed, facing biphobia and queerphobia in the U.S. and Bangladesh, experiencing oneself as a fragmented person while recognizing the caring labor of people who supported them. This oral history of a migrating Bangladeshi transman is a testament to the power of holding on to relationships, making queer homes, and coming home to oneself.

THEMES
Gender & Sexuality

AUDIO
Duration: 02:34:00

ADDITIONAL METADATA
Date: March 3, 2021
Type: Oral History
Source: Archival Creators Fellowship Program
Creator: Efadul Huq
Location: Dhaka, , Bangladesh

PROVENANCE
Collection: Efadul Huq Fellowship Project
Item History: 2021-07-09 (created); 2021-07-16 (modified)

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