Ifti Nasim

Ifti Nasim (1946 – July 22, 2011) was a gay Pakistani American poet. Having moved to the United States to escape persecution for his sexual orientation, he became known locally for establishing Sangat, an organization to support LGBT South Asian youths, and internationally for publishing Narman, a poetry collection that was the first open expression of homosexual themes in the Urdu language. Nasim was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in 1996.

Personal life Nasim was born in Faisalabad, Pakistan (then called Lyallpur), shortly before independence, a middle child in a large family. As a teenager he felt ostracized and alone, and was unable to live openly as gay. At 16, Nasim was shot in the leg by a soldier while reading a politically charged poem, during a protest against martial law. This left lasting injuries, causing Nasim to be unable to perform classical Kathak dance. At 21, he emigrated to the US, inspired in part by an article in Life magazine that he recalled describing the US as "the place for gays to be in" and in part due to the fact that his father was trying to marry him to a girl, leading Nasim to lie to his father and tell him he was going to America for a visit. Several of his siblings later followed him to the US, and he eventually naturalized as a US citizen.

Nasim first arrived in New York City, staying at a YMCA hostel on 42nd Street. Reflecting on his arrival, he said: "I was tall, dark, handsome and exotic, so right away people were making passes at me. Even in the toilets, when I went there... I wrote a poem about it." He later moved to Detroit and enrolled at Wayne State University.

While in the US, Nasim continued to write poetry and worked to bring several siblings to the country. In 1974, he settled in Chicago, where he discovered the city's vibrant gay nightlife. Initially hesitant to enter gay bars, Nasim recalled: "At first I was afraid to go into a gay bar, but I went in. They were the nicest people on the planet earth. I said, What the [heck]—why haven’t I been here before? It was a non-stop party; I loved it."

Nasim died in a hospital in Chicago on July 22, 2011, at the age of 64, following a heart attack. His legacy was honored by many, including activist Debanuj Dasgupta, who met Nasim shortly after immigrating to the US. Dasgupta recalled: "I poured my heart out to him, and he counseled me, sang songs to me, and told me which bars I could go to to meet people... He was a landing pad for many LGBT immigrants." Dasgupta emphasized the need to preserve Nasim's contributions as part of the broader history of queer migration: "These catalogs don’t always exist for people of color."

Nasim later published Myrmecophile in 2000. The title references an insect that lives within an ant colony despite being a different species, symbolizing Nasim's experience as an immigrant navigating multiple identities. The cover featured Nasim in flamboyant drag and the poems addressed topics like queer trauma, religious hypocrisy, and taboo desire. His final collection, Abdoz (2005), returned to earlier themes while contemplating mortality. One of its most striking lines reads: "I feel my life was spent in a submarine / The journey has ended; I saw nothing."

He later released Myrmecophile in 2000, and Abdoz in 2005.