Alyy Patel

Sonali Patel, also known as Alyy Patel, is a Canadian LGBTQ+ activist, who focuses on experiences of Queer South Asian women in Canada.

Early and personal life Patel grew up in Halton Region, Ontario. She is of Indo-African Gujarati descent. This was followed by research on the institutional mechanisms that reinforce the exclusion of queer South Asian women in LGBTQ+ communities. Patel's later research focuses on second-generation queer South Asian women's experiences in the sexual minority closet. She publishes her research under her legal name, Sonali Patel. She is a sociologist by academic training.

LGBTQ+ activism

Patel was a part of the Youth Action Committee that organized Halton Pride 2016. In 2017, Patel was co-president of Woodsworth College's Sexual & Gender Diversity Office, Woodsworth Inclusive (WiNC).

In 2019, Patel founded the Queer South Asian Women's Network in Canada.

Influence As an LGBTQ+ South Asian activist, Patel appeared in 2023 on Amazon Prime Video's Pride Campaign in downtown Toronto's Sankofa Square.

In 2020 and 2024, Patel was a speaker at Pride Toronto's Dyke March. In 2022, Patel was a speaker at the Ontario Government's Pride Flag Raising Ceremony.

Select works