Alyy Patel

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Sonali Patel, who goes by Alyy Patel, is a Canadian LGBTQ+ activist, sociologist, author, and public speaker. Born in 1996 in Toronto, she grew up in Halton Region with Indo-African Gujarati heritage.

Patel studied at the University of Toronto (BA), the University of Ottawa (MA), and the University of British Columbia (PhD). Her work focuses on Queer South Asian Women (QSAW) in Canada. She coined the term QSAW and has conducted important research on the unique discrimination and invisibility faced by this group in North American LGBTQ+ communities. In 2019 she published Brown Girls Can’t Be Gay: Racism Experienced by Queer South Asian Women in the Toronto LGBTQ Community, based on research from 2018-2019.

In 2019 she founded the Queer South Asian Women’s Network (QSAW) to connect and support gender-marginalized LGBTQ+ South Asians across Canada. She has organized large events for queer South Asian women in Toronto (2019–2024) and similar activities in Vancouver, Ottawa, and Montreal, plus virtual speed-friending from 2021–2024. She also co-founded the Queer Gujarati Parivaar in 2021.

Patel has broken new ground at Pride events, including being the first person of South Asian descent to speak at Pride Toronto’s Dyke March in 2020 and again in 2024, and she spoke at the Ontario Government Pride Flag Raising Ceremony in 2022. Her 2022 poetry book, Don’t Tell My Parents: Queer Diasporic Truths, was followed by a Canada-wide tour in 2024. In 2023 she was recognized as one of the Top 7 South Asians in Canada for her work in systemic change.