About Us

DeQH is the first national Desi lgbtQ Helpline in the United States. We offer free, confidential, culturally sensitive peer support, information and resources for LGBTQ South Asian individuals, families and friends around the globe. We want to offer a safe and supportive ear for callers to share their concerns, questions, struggles or hopes through conversations with our trained South Asian peer support volunteers.

DeQH has received support from our friends at Trikone and the National Queer Asian Pacific Alliance. We are a coalition of South Asian lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer organizations and individuals across the United States.
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Our values

1. Caller-Centered
   Our support volunteers will respect and follow your pacing and questions, letting you lead the direction of your call. While we may provide suggestions, resources or share relevant stories, our goal is to help empower you to find solutions that will work best for you. We will never tell you what to do or make an assumption about what is best for you.
2. Non-Judgmental
   Our goal is to be non-judgmental in our responses and any suggestions that we may offer, and we will never shame or criticize you for any behaviors or actions you describe. Instead, we support you wherever you are at and may encourage you to consider safer and healthier alternatives.​
3. Respect Identities
   Our goal is to respect all of the multiple and diverse identities of our callers, including gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, class, nationality, socio-economic status, ability as well as those who don’t have a label or are still questioning their identities. We will never make assumptions about a caller and will ask how you would like to be identified, as well as your gender pronoun.
   
   

How to get involved

If you are a member of the South Asian LGBTQ community and would like to be trained as a peer support volunteer, or to volunteer in other capacities, please contact us for more information.