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From his new home in New Zealand, Male-born Grant (name substituted) and his boyfriend recently formed the Maldives' first gay rights lobby and support group.
We decided to found Rainbow Maldives as an online community that would support queer Maldivians and their allies, and help foster a sense of community, while maintaining enough anonymity to protect those who fear persecution or prosecution, Grant said.
Our group seeks to build and consolidate the Maldivian LGBTQ community, and increase queer visibility and awareness, with the eventual aim of making the Maldives a safer, more accepting place. The only platforms previously available online were focused solely on hooking up, so we'd like to move beyond that into slightly more productive areas.
For Grant, the online option was a second choice to a visible presence.
We tried to get to the heart of the queer community in the Maldives, before realising it couldn't be done -" the community was just too fragmented, too underground. In an Islamic nation with an increasingly radicalised religious community, it can be too dangerous for most people to be out. The Maldives enforces Sharia law, where convicted homosexuals generally serve a prison term, he said.
Pedophilia is also rampant in the Maldives, although until very recently no one really talked about it because there's a stigma attached to homosexuality. Victims of sexual abuse where the abuser was of the same gender are often reluctant to talk about it for fear of being labelled gay. I was subjected to sexual abuse from age five to 16.
In launching Rainbow Maldives, Grant hopes to capitalise on the current mood for change. In October 2008 the country saw the first-ever multi-party election, ousting Maumoon Abdul Gayoom from the presidency, which he had held since 1978.

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