In Pakistan, queer people are not “normal”. We are not part of the norm. Nobody’s campaigning for marriage equality; nobody’s leading a pride parade; you rarely see a rainbow flag. Queers are marginalized, made invisible and/or mocked, as the situation requires.

So we forget that to be “normal”, you have to support patriarchal marriage, fixed gender roles, the intervention of the state in everyday life, monogamy and existing norms of morality. The project of LGBT activism as is popularly available to us is that of including queers into the existing system.

The existing system, however, is patriarchal, heterosexist, capitalistic, exploitative and imperialistic. There is no reason to want to become a full member of that club. It’s like walking up to one of those clubs that used to say, “No dogs or Indians allowed,” and saying, “Let me in, I’m not a dog.” The rules of the club were already not made for you and they were made to exclude a lot of other people. If the club lets you in, you just become one of the assholes who made, condoned and hid behind the sign in the first place.

So there’s no need to be normal.

Normal is fucked. I’m happy to be queer. Queer is not normal.