South Asian LGBTQI+ Community  •  London You belong here. No questions asked.

Water Lily is a community space for South Asian LGBTQI+ people. We offer peer support, connection, and a place where your whole identity is welcome.

Our story
Peer supportled by community members
London basedopen to all South Asian LGBTQI+
Free to joinrun entirely on donations
What we do

We show up for each other

South Asian LGBTQI+ people face specific pressures that most support spaces were not built around. We were.

Peer support

Honest, non-judgmental conversations with people who get it. You do not need to explain your family situation, your faith background or your culture. We already understand.

Community connection

Meet other South Asian LGBTQI+ people in London. Whether you are newly out, questioning, or simply looking for friends who share your background, there is space for you here.

Advocacy

We speak up against harmful narratives and push for equal treatment. We stand in solidarity with LGBTQI+ people seeking asylum, and with everyone facing discrimination.

People gathered together at a community event
London
South Asian LGBTQI+
Who we are

Built by the community,
for the community

Water Lily was founded by someone who knows exactly what it feels like to carry a South Asian identity and a queer identity at the same time, and to feel like neither space fully accepts you.

  • Run by people with lived experience, not assumptions
  • Rooted in London, open to everyone in the UK
  • Unregistered community organisation with no commercial agenda
  • Inclusive of all South Asian backgrounds and faiths
  • Actively supporting LGBTQI+ asylum seekers and refugees
Meet the founder
The reality

The stigma is real

Being South Asian and LGBTQI+ often means navigating family rejection, cultural shame, religious pressure, and racial exclusion within LGBTQI+ spaces, all at once.

"Many South Asian LGBTQI+ people are completely isolated. They cannot turn to their family, and they cannot find themselves in mainstream queer spaces either."

Water Lily exists because that gap is real, and because nobody should have to choose between their identity and their community.

Get in touch
51%

Of Black, Asian and minority ethnic LGBT people have experienced discrimination from others in their local LGBT community because of their ethnicity. Stonewall, Rainbow Britain 2022

46%

Of lesbian, gay and bi people feel able to be open about their identity to everyone in their family — meaning more than half still cannot. Stonewall, Rainbow Britain 2022

Actively
dangerous

Researchers found the UK asylum system is "actively dangerous" for LGBTQI+ people seeking sanctuary — facing abuse from contractors, interpreters and within accommodation. University of Birmingham & Rainbow Migration, 2024

Common questions

Questions you might have

Everything you need to know before reaching out. There are no wrong questions here.