#47 The Thing About Camouflaged Identities

The spaces of wildlife and conservation are home to LOTS of queer-identifying individuals around the world, each one doing inspiring and important work. The risks of being openly and visibly LGBTQIA+ are, unfortunately, still very real - a topic that we have been discussing since June on The Thing About Wildlife, and in our safer silos like the Queer Wildlifers' Circle. Each voice MATTERS. Every story MATTERS. Visibility matters, even when kept completely confidential and anonymous. Keeping this in mind, earlier this month, I called upon the discreet, quiet LGBTQIA+ identifying ecologists and conservationists out there, hoping to provide a safe space for them to share their stories. Today, I’m humbled to lend voice to their words - written from their lived experiences and their hearts - a mix of happy moments, anguish, optimism, pleas for the future and the desire for our professional spaces to do better by the queer community. Today’s episode features a series of anonymous stories shared by queer-identifying wildlifers from India. While you won’t get to hear all their voices, I implore you to pay attention to their words. I thank Ishaan and Tanisha for lending their voices to these tales, and hope you enjoy, relate to and mull over all that lies in the upcoming minutes.