Sincerely Yours

  They say distance separates hearts, but I think ours just learned to beat louder. Today marks one full year of being in a long-distance relationship, 365 days of holding on, showing up, and proving that love doesn’t shrink with space; it stretches, adapts, and if you're lucky, it deepens. What once felt impossible is now something we’ve lived, and are still living, one day, one call, one “goodnight” at a time. I still think about that day at the airport. The way your hand slipped out of mine. The tears neither of us wanted to let fall. The ache I carried through,  that was Day One, the beginning of this strange, beautiful, often frustrating chapter. We didn’t know if we’d last. But here we are. A year later. Stronger, closer, and even more in love. This year taught us that love doesn’t always come in fireworks or fairy tale moments. It comes in the little things. Your sleepy morning voice notes were my daily shot of warmth. My late-night texts full of memes became your las...

If you had walked toward the city bus parking in Thimphu anytime before 2024, you might have noticed a rainbow-colored flag gently swaying from the balcony of the once well-known Osang building. That flag, vibrant and full of meaning, marked the quiet but powerful presence of Bhutan’s LGBT+ movement in the heart of the capital. But now, that flag no longer flies there. We were asked by the Civil Society Organization (CSO) Authority to take it down. The reason? Our office, they explained, is neither a consulate, embassy, nor religious institution and as such, is not permitted to display any flag other than Bhutan’s national flag. While this directive is not codified into law, it seems to fall under an unwritten. Out of respect and to avoid confrontation, we complied without protest and removed the flag. But this request did not come in isolation. It came at a time when our organization was already grappling with another long-standing challenge, our ongoing struggle to register as a...