Out of the Silence: Arjun’s Journey of Becoming

Arjun always knew he was different.

Not in the dramatic, movie-scene way. Just… different. He loved poetry, not cricket. He found joy in quiet moments, in music, and in watching the rain. And while his classmates whispered about girls, Arjun’s heart skipped for someone named Kabir.

But he buried it. Because boys like him didn’t talk about such things in small towns in Haryana. His family didn’t even say the word “gay”. If it came up, it was followed by either shame or a nervous joke.

So Arjun lived in silence.

He wore masks. Dated girls. Laughed on cue. But at night, his pillow knew the truth — and the tears.

It wasn’t until college that he met others like him. At first, he denied it. Then questioned it. But in the chaos of figuring himself out, he met Aarti — a trans woman who hosted queer poetry meetups.

Her voice was bold. Her laugh, free.

“You don’t owe anyone your silence,” she once told him. And that changed everything.

Arjun slowly began to live as his true self. He came out to close friends. He attended pride events — secretly at first, then proudly. But coming out to his parents? That was the hardest.

When he finally told them, the silence was deafening. His mother cried. His father didn’t speak for days. They asked him to see a doctor. Then a priest.

But Arjun stood his ground. Not with rage, but with truth.

He showed them his art. Shared his pain. Asked for love, not permission. And while it took months — even years — they slowly began to see their son again, this time more honest, more whole.

Today, Arjun runs a small queer café-library in Delhi called “The Closet is Full”, where LGBTQ+ youth come to read, write, heal, and be seen. He writes poetry for those still hiding, still hurting.

His survival wasn’t just about being gay — it was about being real.

Why This Story Matters:

In a country where queer voices are often silenced or erased, stories like Arjun’s remind us that visibility itself is resistance. And sometimes, survival begins with a single word: truth.