Sam Kang Li, Singapore
I’m a Woman

"I have every right to love whomever I want," Alex Chamling tells me. The 27-year-old realised he was a homosexual in his teen years, but only began accepting his sexuality a few years back. "As long as I don't affect others in a negative way or do bad to others, loving someone of the same sex isn't a sin," he concludes.

Chamling is part of the LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) community in Nepal, which consists of no less than 900,000 people, not including those who are not yet "out of the closet". For the past decade, Nepal has been striving for political freedom, but along the fringes the LGBTI community has been fighting for individual freedom. In this country, 80 percent of its citizens live in villages, and, having been rejected in their own communities, LGBTI people flee to Kathmandu to search for acceptance and jobs.

But it has not been easy even in the city, and the Blue Diamond Society was set up to provide awareness to the public as well as assist LGBTI in their personal development. More significantly, the closely-knit organization gives LGBTI people a true liberty to be just as they are – gay and happy.

Photographing them has enabled me to enter their otherwise secretive lives. They are often humourous, fun loving and creatively talented. Yet, upon leaving their own gates and entering public space, they walk into a perplexing prison of stares and intimidating treatment. These perpetuate the community's withdrawal and they shy themselves away from the crowd. In capturing visual slices of their energetic inner lives, there is a hope of breaking down the fences of their tunnels -- to cast a light of release that will eventually allow the community a genuine right to love freely, and to be free.