On the one hand, so much LGBTQIA+ activism in countries in the global south has strictly followed a global north model and has been funded by global north orgs, implicitly accepting racist and imperialist narratives, so it is understandable people see us as a foreign imposition and yet another lever of control by Empire.

On the other, queerphobia exists not only in reaction to this. It finds a home because it is so normalized, and because it confirms many of these people's priors. And even though I understand the reasoning behind it, it doesn't make it any less painful that I felt I had to escape my country in big part because I couldn't feel I could be myself there, that now that fascism is becoming rampant where I live I feel I cannot go back home because it would be even worse, and that I can't even come out to my family without being lambasted for being brainwashed by gringos.