THE EMPATHY PROJECT

Wiilo: Queer Somali Canadian American

“Wiilo Geedi. Wiilo in Somali means girls who dresses like boy. It’s a nickname that I was given  by my elders when I was younger. It’s something that has always comforted me when I was going through my process of discovering my queerness and helped me to overcome the shame and the feeling of being pushed away from my culture. 

Like everything about myself my country of origin is complicated. I was born in Washington, DC while my parents were on vacation. We returned to Somalia but my family emigrated from Somalia because of civil war and I grew up in suburbs outside Toronto, Canada.

They/Them

Queer ”

- Wiilo (Queer Somali Canadian American, They/Them, IG/Twitter: @pocstudios)

About Limit(less): Limit(less) is a photography project by Mikael Owunna (@owning-my-truth) documenting the visual aesthetics and expression of LGBTQ African Immigrants (1st and 2nd generation) in diaspora. As LGBTQ Africans, we are constantly told that being LGBTQ is somehow “un-African,” and this rhetoric is a regular part of homophobic and transphobic discourse in African communities. This line of thinking, however, is patently false and exists an artifact of colonization of the African continent. Identities which would now be categorized as “LGBTQ” have always existed, and being LGBTQ does not make us “less” African.

Limit(less) explores how LGBTQ African immigrants navigate their identities and find ways to overcome the supposed “tension” between their LGBTQ and African identities through their visual aesthetics and expression. The project seeks to visually deconstruct the colonial binary that has been set up between LGBTQ and African identities, which erases the lives and experiences of LGBTQ Africans.  #LimitlessAfricans

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I’d just like to say thank you so much for bringing me and my partner together 2 years ago! I seen her submission on here and messaged her right away, she lives in Northern Ireland and I live in the Republic, a 5 hour, 2 train journey away but we spend weeks together and only a short few weeks apart if even. We both wear a bracelet everyday that says the day we got together officially on October 15th 2013. If it wasn’t for the people who run this blog I would’ve never met her and she is the love of my life and always will be. She’s the best thing to ever happen to me and we’ve saved each others lives basically. In 3 months we’ll be celebrating our 2 year anniversary and I couldn’t be happier. Thank you for introducing me to the most perfect woman on this planet for me and making my life complete. I could never thank you enough and I’ll never believe how lucky I am.

yeah sorry I couldn’t hear you over the hour long rant my friends mom once delivered about how she really supported gay rights but couldn’t stand bi people while i sat in the backseat of her car nearly in tears because the parent of someone I loved was throwing hate speech at me.

yeah I can’t hear you over the minimal representation  I receive in television which is usually just a sassy assistant making a remark about her “lesbian phase” and how in one of the most progressive queer shows that’s ever received critical acclaim the words ‘bi or pan’ are never used once.

yeah I can’t hear you over my ex calling me a slut after finding out I was bi and saying all I am is an indecisive whore.

i can’t fucking hear you over mono queer people mocking me and jeering at my desire for representation, calling me ‘not queer enough’, and ‘laughing hollowly’ over my attempts to explain my struggles as a bisexual woman.

yeah im sorry i can’t hear you over my friends long rant about how she didn’t think she could keep dating her bi boyfriend because he would probably cheat on her, and her eye rolls when i told her what she was saying was offensive.