S10E04 When Being Yourself Doesn't Feel Safe | Kishan Singh & Hun Ming Kwang

Description

When being yourself doesn't feel safe......you become whoever the world needs you to be.Until one day, you forget who you really are.For many LGBTQ+ people, hiding isn't a choice.It's a survival strategy.In Episode 4 of Beyond Pride: The Darkness We Battle, Kishan Singh, science teacher, LGBTQ+ activist, podcast host, and Pink Dot organising committee member, joins Hun Ming Kwang, LGBTQ+ Ally, award winning Master Coach, filmmaker, and InnerWork, Diversity, Inclusion, Deep Democracy & Process Work Facilitator, for one of the most honest conversations of the season.Kishan shares what it was like growing up knowing he was gay, learning to compartmentalise parts of himself to fit into the world around him, and eventually reaching a point where he simply became tired of hiding.The conversation takes a deeply personal turn as he recounts the investigation he faced as a teacher after a complaint about his sexuality, an experience that changed the trajectory of his career, challenged his sense of justice, and ultimately led him towards activism and creating safer spaces for others.Together, Kishan and Ming explore questions that reach far beyond the LGBTQ+ experience:• Why do we hide parts of ourselves?• What happens when authenticity doesn't feel safe?• Why do we become different versions of ourselves to survive?• How do shame and fear quietly shape the choices we make?• What does psychological safety actually look like?• How do we create spaces where people feel safe enough to be fully themselves?Drawing on decades of work in innerWork, trauma-informed coaching, diversity, inclusion, deep democracy and process work, Ming expands the conversation beyond sexuality into something profoundly human:What happens when we spend years believing it's safer to hide than to be seen?Together, they explore how identity, family, education, culture, history and collective systems quietly shape our lives—and why true belonging can only begin when we no longer have to perform a version of ourselves to earn acceptance.This isn't a conve