Anwesh Sahoo

Anwesh Sahoo is a Writer, Model, Actor, Blogger, and Artist. He was born on 4^th July 1995 at Bhubaneswar, Odisha. In an interview with Gaylaxy Magazine he said he had a  pretty good childhood until he went to middle school, where the bullying started. He also ranked 15, All India Rank, in NIFT entrance exam in 2018 and is studying M. Des at NIFT, New Delhi. He disclosed his sexuality to his sister when he was 16 years old. By the time he was 18 years, he was writing ‘The Effeminare,’ to fight homophobia in his own way and also to spread awareness about the issues of sexual minorities in India.

He wrote an article for pink-pages, the National LGBT Magazine, in India named ‘Under the Lucky Star’ where he came out to the readers, though he later on came out to his parents as well, through the article. In an article, he writes, ‘Lastly there is this feeling of security that only the walls of the closet can provide, but then comes the phase of suffocation, the walls that were once our shield has become our prison and the final phase is “the end of self -denial,” it is from here that it gets better.’

In article for Pink-Pages the following year he wrote under the title ‘Growing up gay in India part I isn’t half Among the awards that he has received are the Troy Perry Award for compassionate activism which he was the first Indian to receive. He has  graduated in Electronics and Communication Engineering from IIIT Delhi; and did his Master of Design in the year 2020 from NIFT New Delhi. He later employed with Aristocrat Gaming, an Australian MNC, as a Technical Artist and did his Master of Science at University College Cork. 

After his victory in Mr. Gay World India, he was in the video for the 50 Shades of Gay, shot by Shubham Mehrotra and was in Gay Star News the same year. He was the first former contributor of Pink Pages to appear on the cover of the magazine in June 6, 2016. His blog  ‘Silly Questions Straight People Ask Gay Men’  found mainstream appeal and went viral on the Internet and was reposted on Indian and International web-sites, including BuzzFeed India Cosmopolitan India. He also writes for Swaddle, an online parenting magazine, in which he writes about sexuality and gender for parents.

In one of his blogs, Anwesh has also mentioned about the virtual harassment he suffered from after winning the title of Mr. Gay India of being ‘not handsome enough’ and ‘far too dark to represent India’. He planned the first ever pride march for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) community in Delhi University with collaboration with IIT Delhi’s Annual festival Rendezvous to raise people’s awareness of such people. Anwesh has also featured in a photo series by British photographer Olivia Arthur for a series on Sexuality in Mumbai, India, which was exhibited at the FOCUS Photography Festival 2017, at the Elysium Mansion, Colaba. Anwesh was recognised by Indian Women Blog as one of the emerging Indian LGBT Role Models of 2016 along with Tripathi, a known transgender rights activist and Singh, a business analyst.