Jason Kwan (he/they) & his allies, Dodo Potato (they/she) and Mahatma Khandi (he/she/they).
Shot by Bex Wade (they/them)
Jason’s allies are The Bitten Peach - a queer, pan-Asian, cabaret collective. Jason’s allies let him be himself. They celebrate him and hold him on days where he struggles with gender dysphoria. In the past, Jason has found Pride tricky as he’s not always felt he fit into those spaces as a queer Asian person. Today, he is inspired by people marching with and for him as his allies. This Pride in London, Jason marches with compassion.
What does allyship mean? Pride is a protest, Pride is a celebration, Pride is a march. And it’s nice to see people march with me and march for me as allies. And for me to march with people too.
How does your ally support you? When I first came to London, I really struggled to connect to the queer community and express my gender identity. It wasn’t until I met these amazing queer performers that I felt like I had a family. Through performing on stage with The Bitten Peach, I was able to find the words to express my trans, non-binary identity. They are my best friends and they also let me by myself. On days when I have gender dysphoria, they really just hold me and make sure I’m OK. When we go out and dress up together, we just have fun celebrating and expressing ourselves exactly as we want to. They hold me and understand me. It felt like my whole world was ending because my biological family wasn’t understanding of my identity. My allies are my chosen family. They give me hope and patience that my biological family will one day understand me too. It wasn’t until I met The Bitten Peach that I started to explore exactly who I was.
I march with compassion
I march with my chosen family