I’m José Carlos Mejia, I’m hosting this episode, and the theme is “belonging”.

For a long time I was only in the UK temporarily, with a visa just for a year or two. I struggled for London to feel like home, and I still don’t find it easy. So for my episode of Queer Roots and Routes, I’ve picked some people from our collective to share their stories about how they manage to belong — if they actually feel like they do. I’m hoping that these stories will make me feel at home.

Stories include Sebastián’s, who says “I was too queer for the straight people. I was too brown for the white people, but I wasn't Latino enough for the Colombians...”

And Saaqib and Rad, who discuss their experiences of being asked “Where are you from?”.

If you are an LGBTQ+ refugee or asylum seeker, and need help navigating the immigration system, I recommend RAINBOW MIGRATION, who might be able to offer the support you need.

Queer Roots and Routes is an Aunt Nell Production for The Love Tank, a not-for-profit community interest company that promotes health and wellbeing of under-served communities through education, capacity building and research.

Produced, edited and engineered by:

Tash Walker

and

Adam Zmith

Assistant producers:

Saaqib Afzal

José Carlos Mejia

Amardeep Singh Dhillon

Chase Edwards

Stanley Iyanu

and

Rad Konieczny

Creative design and artwork by:

Richard Kahwagi

Music by Edoy

Recorded at Pirate Studios in Dalston and Hackney Wick, east London

Executive producers:

Marc Thompson

and

Dale Taylor-Gentles

Sound effects from freesound.org.

Full credits and the episode transcript available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.