Shaneel Lal has just been named in the prestigious Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list for social impact. Vaimoana Mase meets the young transgender activist who was just a teenager when they started their fight to ban conversion therapy in New Zealand.
Shaneel Lal vividly remembers being separated from other children and the so-called enchanted bracelets that were forced on them in a bid to pray the gay away.
"My queerness was seen as an evil spirit. I was seen to be possessed or I was treated like a witch.
"They kept me away from the girls so I would not become more feminine. They kept me away from the boys so that my queerness would not pass to them.
"As a kid, I just wanted to survive. I was not trying to convert anyone else and I did not know how to - I would not know how to."
Lal is 22 years old now and juggles a busy life as a university student studying towards a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts majoring in psychology; while also being a voice for gay rights.
Despite that, life as a queer and transgender person is still lonely at times. Lal also identifies as non-binary and uses the pronouns them and they.
Over the past few years, the young activist has been catapulted into the political spotlight; having been very vocal about the rights of young people who identify as non-binary and those within the LGBTQIA (lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual) community.
But Lal is arguably more widely known for their fight to ban conversion therapy practices such as those they experienced as a young child growing up in Fiji.
In mid-February, Parliament passed a law that bans conversion therapy practices and therefore makes it a criminal offence to attempt to change or suppress a person's sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.
Under the new law, it is now a civil offence to carry out conversion therapy on a person who is under 18 years old or on someone with impaired decision-making capacity.
The punishment could see a person sentenced to up to three years' imprisonment or five years where serious harm has been caused - irrespective of age.
The passing of the bill had a lot to do with Lal; who gave an impassioned speech at Youth Parliament 2019 calling for the banning of conversion therapies, before going on to be the co-founder and leader of the End Conversion Therapy NZ group.
"I'll say this with a sigh - I felt that I've been forced to grow up because of being visible in politics. I've never been afforded the opportunity to just be a reckless teenager.
"I feel the sense of nostalgia - as though I've missed out in an entire chunk of my life [and that] I've missed out on very crucial experiences of just being a young person."
Many people know that part of Lal's story, but other parts of their background have helped to make up the person and leader they are today.
Lal and their family are originally from Fiji and identify as Fijian with Indian ancestry.
Growing up in Fiji, being gay was not accepted. However, Lal remembers seeing a few people who identified as being vakasalewalewa or hijra - the indigenous terms for trans women in the respective Fijian and Indian cultures.
Lal also saw how at least one trans woman was abused and spat at one day and the way society disregarded them.
At 14 years old, Lal's family moved to New Zealand - a place Lal thought they would be better accepted. That was not the case so much.
"I saw the queer community was white. No one in the queer community looked like me.
"I'd gone from Fiji where queerness wasn't accepted at all - in fact, people tried to harm us or hurt us - and I moved to Aotearoa where queerness was celebrated, but it was only celebrated if you were white."
To try to connect with other people like themselves, Lal signed up to the app Grindr - similar to online dating app Tinder, but for gay people.
Instead of inclusion, Lal was left feeling unwanted after many profiles declared they did not want to meet anyone who was fat, feminine or Asian.
"I meet two of those criteria and so I've been categorically ruled out by so many people in the queer community.
"That's when I was like: 'Oh, this community is actually not only defined by whiteness, they're also very racist.'"
In 2018, Lal graduated from Ōtāhuhu College, in South Auckland, and was named dux that year - a fact that may offer some insight into the work ethic Lal has always had even from a young age.
All throughout high school - from Year 9 up to Year 12 - they would fall short of getting the coveted top student award, despite having high grades each year.
"It irritated me."
So at the start of that final year at school, Lal walked into the principal's office and asked what they needed to do to become dux.
"Every single year, they had used some random criteria that I somehow did not meet. So (that) year, I was like: 'I am not going to let you decide my fate. I'm going to take control.'"
Lal rattles off the subjects they took - calculus, physics, chemistry, biology and English or the Asian five, as they describe with a laugh.
Asked if they had come out as queer by high school, Lal says it was never something they felt needed to be explained.
"Just the concept of coming out has always been [astonishing] to me because I've always treated being queer similarly to being brown.
"I never had to sit my parents down and say: 'Mum, Dad, I hope you still love me - I'm brown.'
"That would be ridiculous. So I was not convinced that I needed to do the same for my queerness because these were the two very ordinary things about myself.
"None of the rugby boys who are straight ever had to come out as heterosexual, so why do I have to come out as gay?"
On the day of the interview, Lal reveals a frightening situation they found themselves in just a day before.
"I just had one of the most gross interactions on the bus."
An older man already on the bus got up and sat next to Lal before propositioning sex.
"He basically asked: 'Oh, what are you up to? Do you want to have fun?'
"I wanted to jump out of the bus. I'm a very confident person and I can take on very difficult situations, but that just sent a shock through my body."
The man got off the bus - at Lal's stop - and followed them. Lal said they did not know how long the man followed, but that it was enough for them to want to report the incident to police.
Lal is working towards more big goals, including what is tipped to be a thriving modelling career and at least two big projects that cannot yet be mentioned - as well as finishing university.
Those will come off the back of what Lal has already achieved so far, including being featured in top fashion magazine Vogue and being named in the prestigious Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list for social impact just last week.
Their journey of self-discovery also continues as a young vakasalewalewa - which Lal officially identifies themself as.
Lal has a message of encouragement to those young people, particularly Pasifika, who are struggling with their identity or sexual orientation to hold on to hope.
"I've been there - it feels like you're absolutely alone and that nothing is ever going to get better for you.
"Hold on and keep going because things do change and they often change for the better."
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