Coming Clean: Part 2

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Dearest friends,

Many of you have read my previous confession ‘Coming Clean.’  Continuing from this confession, there are a number of other things I’d like to clear up.

1.   I/nor my contributors never received money from the Saudis.

I/WE ARE NOT SURE WHERE THIS RUMOR CAME FROM BUT WE HAVE NEVER DEALT WITH THE SAUDIS NOR DO WE HAVE OPERATIONS IN THE COUNTRY.

2.  24 years ago I created ‘Bazaar Daily Collective’ and this is why.

When I was young I had this regal green teddy bear that I absolutely adored I had quietly named him Sultan.   I was bullied by my adoptive father over that teddy bear who believed that teddy bears made boys gay.    This was in 2002 a year after he and his wife (my aunt, turned mother) adopted me  I was all but 7 years old.  So to correct the narrative surrounding the history of this paper and the related I’d like to state:

Bazaar Daily and the myth of The Collective both were born to spite my parents for turning their back on me before I even knew myself that I was gay.  I grew up in a house where I was the only person of color twice removed for miles.  To argue or say that I felt out of place would have been a criminal understatement.

While Bazaar Daily was never a myth The Collective was.  Although both were born to spite my parents I knew early on that to keep Bazaar Daily alive I’d have to keep it from them until I turned of age.   And a year short, they didn’t discover what I had created or did online until I was 17 the year I was taken against my will to Alabama (I never returned home after escaping.)

There is this persistent rumor that Bazaar Daily was born because I somehow came from money. I’d like to dispel that rumor.  My family definitely did not have money when I grew up,  contrary to belief, my aunt (I won’t call her Mom because she was never a Mom)  was a ‘Single Mom’ raising two kids. 

3. The truth about Jupiter.

Contrary to some rumors Jupiter is a real person. Though I can’t say for certain what happened to him (because I honestly don’t know) he was my first boyfriend.  I’d like to clear this up also.

Initially, we were just friends when I was very young.  He was one of the first boys I had met online at the time and we quickly developed a relationship.  Though it didn’t last long because my aunt falsely accused him of trying to kidnap me (when in reality he was helping me conceal my secret from them)  then I never saw or spoke to him again. I honestly couldn’t say what happened to Jupiter (Taylor) as unfortunate as that is. He was someone I truly cared about and arguably was my first real crush. 

4. The truth about why my real name is not public information

This one has always bothered me a tad.  I’m not someone who has sought fame and fortune.  I’m not someone who has sought the spotlight for good or bad.  In fact, to be completely transparent, I’ve stayed away from the spotlight because it gives me terrible anxiety. My real name is not public information because there are people who are very angry with me over things I have written in the past (all backed up by verifiable evidence though.)

This is simply a safety measure.  My personal life and professional life are intentionally separated. Despite these public confessions this will remain unchanged.

5. On the many exposes I’ve either published or authorized from a contributor…

Look I’m going to be completely transparent we don’t seek out the type of stories that end up being one of the many explosive essays we’ve written.  For the same reason, we don’t cover much celebrity gossip we don’t cover certain types of scandals it just leads to problems.

I stand by those I’ve authored and authorized however.   The exposes I/we’ve published many of them have had real world consequences. 

6. Expanding on the history of Bazaar Daily

As mentioned above,  the idea for Bazaar Daily and the aforementioned myth of The Collective were created to spite my parents who believed that gay people amount to nothing and are nothing short of a just a problem in life. 

When I was 7, the only other person besides my best friend to know about my online activities was in fact my teacher at the time.   I owe partial credit for my success to my teacher (who I won’t name for their privacy) who pushed me to discover my love for writing after discovering I could write compelling essays.

    7. How did I keep the secret from my parents?

I wasn’t always able to hide the secret and at many points I had thought my cover was blown.  I’ll never forget one year I had started to receive sponsored products in the mail and my aunt assumed that I was sleeping with older men to get free stuff (because that’s what she always thought of me the lowest of the low.)

That was the first time I had to really figure out how to hide what I was doing I was probably 13 or 14 at the time.   I was receiving tablets and other items in the mail but wasn’t telling my aunt the truth about where they came from because I did not want her to know I had hit it big online.

Over the years I used many tactics to keep my activities a secret one of them being my real name not being public information.   This helped me keep the secret from them until the secret later exploded in my 20s.   Because they simply couldn’t Google my real name and everything came up nothing was there.  

8.  On what I would have done if I didn’t hit it big with Bazaar Daily

This is a common question I get in emails a lot.  If I could go back in time and do something ‘else’ I would probably deal in anthropology or forensic science.  Contrary to belief as I mentioned  I never sought the spotlight in the beginning I actually wanted to be a forensic scientist like the criminal investigative kind.  Journalism and blogging came to be completely by accident when I was 7 born entirely out of spite because I hated that my aunt and her husband thought so little of gay people. It was all to prove a point if we are being completely fair I did later turn out gay but I also turned out gay and successful.

I beat them at their own hatred.

9. What inspired or inspires the many verticals Bazaar Daily now has?

I always imagined Bazaar Daily being a multi-vertical style news magazine that covered a broad range of topics.  That was always the general idea that I had imagined as everything evolved into the present day. Luckily it all worked out for me/us nd it turned out exactly how I envisioned it.  The paper now covers more than 50 weekly topics with various guest contributors and analyses delivered weekly.  I genuinely adore the many contributors who have dropped in over the years I love reading their unique and timely stories.

I hope to continue to expand our reach and verticals as I/we explore different parts of the world that need free and fair accessible news delivered to them. That has always been the driving philosophy behind Bazaar Daily and the reason why we don’t have paywalls: we were always designed to be free and fair for everyone especially those in underserved areas.

10.  The meaning behind my name Sultan Haleem Khane

This is always a fun question I get emails about.  While I won’t identify them, the name was bestowed on me by my then Muslim mentor. I had this amazing mentor as a teenager whom I managed to keep secret from everyone around me.  They helped guide me through some very dark times and helped me manage what has now become the Bazaar Daily network.

So to clarify I’d also like to state: yes I am Muslim. This is a Muslim owned news network. This has never driven the reporting doled out by this newspaper and has never been a deciding factor in any editorial decisions.

I got a lot of questions in response to my first confession.  I’ll continue to answer them in further editions of coming clean. 

xo,

K