Archive for the ‘Current Affairs’ Category

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New Jersey Assembly passes Gay Marriage Bill, Governor to Veto it


2012
02.18

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On Feb 16, the New Jersey Assembly passed a same-sex marriage bill  that would allow gay couples to marry . However, the bill faces fresh opposition from Governor Chris Christie, who has vowed to veto it. Earlier this week, the New Jersey State Senate had passed the bill with 24 to 16 votes and sent it to the Assembly for voting.

A similar move at legalising same-sex marriages two years earlier in New Jersey had failed when the supporters of the bill could not garner enough votes. However, advocates of the bill have been able to garner the support of 10 more legislators in the Senate this time, and this is seen as a huge win for gay rights in the state. On Thursday, after debating the bill for over 2 hours, the New Jersey Assembly too passed the bill with a 42-33 majority.

However, Governor Chris Christie has said that he will veto the bill and instead put it up for a referendum by people in November. “I’ve given them an alternative. Put it on the ballot and let the people decide,” The New York Times quoted him as saying.

In case the Governor vetoes the bill as expected, supporters of the bill have the option to garner two-thirds majority to override the veto. If signed into law, New Jersey will become the eight state in USA to allow same-sex marriage.

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Human Rights, Now!


2012
02.02

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Flashpoint Film Festival

Eminent media and fashion personality Feroze Gujral to inaugurate human rights film fest in New Delhi that opens the door for a range of human rights issues from violence, fundamentalism and corruption to gender discrimination and homophobia

 

New Delhi: Following on the highly successful and impactful first edition, the 2nd edition of FLASHPOINT Human Rights Film Festival will be held from February 3rd – 5th, 2011 at Alliance Française de Delhi.

The festival will be inaugurated by Feroze Gujral, eminent media and fashion personality and the director of the philanthropic art foundation Outset India, and Mr. Max Claudet, Cooperation And Cultural Counsellor, French Embassy on February 3rd morning at 10am at Alliance Française de Delhi.

This year the festival will screen 16 films that take a critical and empathetic look at several human rights issues – from religious fundamentalism, communal violence, political authoritarianism, war crimes, homophobia, surrogacy, migrant rehabilitation, women empowerment, corruption and poverty.

The films shine a harsh beam on human rights violations in, as diverse countries as, Kenya, Senegal, Columbia, Israel, Iraq, Kurdistan, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Cameroon, USA and India. This year, for the first time, the festival screens six films that are set in India focusing on human rights issues and human right defenders – Firaaq, Mee Sindutai Sakpal, Cotton For My Shroud, Made In India, In Search Of My Home and Pink Saris.

Rangayan says, “The festival is an attempt to highlight issues and initiate a dialogue. The first step towards fighting human rights violation is creating awareness. Only when someone knows there is a problem, can one raise a voice and ignite change. Entry to the festival is free and there is no need for pre-registration. We want everyone to be able to see the films and participate in the discussions.”

FLASHPOINT Human Rights Film Festival is organized by Solaris Pictures in collaboration with Alliance Française de Delhi, Movies That Matter and Ramon Productions.

The 2nd FLASHPOINT Human Rights Film Festival screened also in Mumbai between December 8-10, 2011 and was inaugurated by eminent director Mahesh Bhatt and actress Tisca Chopra alongwith Consul General of France in Mumbai. Other celebrities who attended and participated in discussions were Nandita Das, Onir, Alyque Padamsee, Dolly Thakore, Mona Ambegoankar and Ananth Mahadevan.

The inauguration of the film festival on February 3rd will also feature launch of PROJECT BOLO in New Delhi. Project Bolo is the first ever comprehensive LGBT oral history project that records 20 LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) persons in four cities who open up in a candid manner to offer an inside view into their lives, views and accomplishments. These in-depth video interviews walk us through their lives – their growing up years, sexual explorations, coming out to family/friends/media, their romances and relationships, their fearless career paths and their pioneering accomplishments.

Feroze Gujral who will launch the Project Bolo DVDs in New Delhi says, “”Project Bolo is an important step in the history of the LBGT movement in India and I am proud to support it and release it officially in Delhi. We need to create an inclusive India for all its citizens, and this includes its gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender minorities. I have so many friends from this community and I have always felt angry that their voices are not heard enough. Project Bolo finally amplifies some of these voices, and shows, how, in their own ways, members of this community are not so different from the rest of us, in their lives, hopes and dreams.”

Several Project Bolo interviewees like Saleem Kidwai, Sunil Gupta, Parmesh Shahani, Aditya Bandopadhyay and Hoshang Merchant will also be present during the event.

“We need these voices to ring, loud and clear, across every platform to reach out to the social mainstream – to say we exist and that we lead productive lives. There is a general notion that gay, lesbian and transgender persons are only interested in sex, fashion, partying and drugs. People can’t imagine that they can also be successful doctors, lawyers, writers, filmmakers, historians, professors, businesswomen and corporate executives! Project Bolo will change that person and underline the fact that LGBT persons too are ‘useful’ members of the society!”, says Sridhar Rangayan, who has conceived and directed the project. Project Bolo is produced by The Humsafar Trust in association with Solaris Pictures and supported by UNDP.

Entry to the film festival is free. The full schedule and synopses of films playing at 2nd FLASHPOINT Human Rights Film Festival, can be found at www.flashpointfilmfestival.com

 

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Mumbai witnesses Asia’s first gay flash mob


2012
01.24

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Posted in Current Affairs, events, gay, lgbt, pride march | 10 Comments »

Gay flash mob of mumbai at marine drive

As part of the pride week celebrations currently going on in Mumbai preceding the actual gay pride march in the city on 28th Jan, Mumbai today witnessed India’s first gay flash mob, which also happens to be Asia’s first gay flash mob. It was a pleasant surprise for many present at Marine Drive when a little after 6pm, more than 50 people started dancing to a medley of carefully selected Bollywood songs ‘Character Dheela’, ‘Sadda Haq’ and ‘Maa Da Ladla’.

Preparations for the first gay flash mob of Asia had been going around for a month with the participants practicing for it every weekend. Dev Kakkad, who is credited with choreographing Mumbai’s now famous flash mob at Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station, also choreographed India’s first gay flash mob. However, publicity in the media about the flash mob beforehand meant that public at Marine Drive already had an inkling about it, thus taking away the surprise element of a flash mob. “It was an amazing experience to be a part of it,” an ecstatic Souvik Ghosh, who happened to be the only non-Mumbai person to be part of the mob, said. “It was a huge success except for the fact that the ambience of a flash mob was a little disappointing because people had already got a hint of it. But we could still pull it like a flash mob,” he added.

Gay flash mobs have emerged as a major source of protest in the west, where many political leaders who aired their homophobia were often confronted with flash mobs by LGBTs. Although flash mobs started in 2003 and have since been organized in various cities across the world, the phenomenon has only recently caught up with India when Mumbai yet again led other Indian cities and a successful flash mob was organized in the busy CST railway station. Given the comments by the Health Minister of India against homosexuality and the recent harassment of people attending the QAM (Queer Azadi March) pride fund-raiser party in Mumbai, the flash mob with its choice of songs made the perfect statement. With its grand success, all eyes would now be on the Queer Azadi March on 28th Jan.

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London Gay Men’s Chorus Record Proud2Be Video


2012
01.19

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The London Gay Men’s Chorus is Europe’s largest and best known gay choir. Founded in 1991 by a group of six gay men at Angel underground station, the choir now boasts over 230 members in total. The choir which is a registered charity, have sung and performed with Sir Elton John, The Human League, Sandi Toksvig, K. D. Lang, Damien Hirst and the Pet Shop Boys to name but a few. The ‘LGMC’, as they are known, have recorded a Proud2Be video to show the LGBTQ youth that there are people in the world like them who are proud to be who they are.
 

 
The online video campaign is part of a global organisation that was founded in June 2011 by gay identical twin brothers Matt and Jon Price. The Proud2Be project was set up to encourage and support the LGBTQ youth to be proud of who they are. “As children the overriding message we both received from our school and church, the media and society was that being gay was something to be ashamed of. We desire for the LGBTQ youth of today to be able to access a different message,” they say.

Proud2Be video of London Gay Men’s Chorus


 

Matt and John speaking about Proud2BeProject

Here is how you can help the Proud2BeProject! Whether you identify yourself as part of the LGBTQ community or you are a friend or supporter of the LGBTQ community, get involved by making your own Proud2Be Video. Anyone can do this; individuals, couples, groups and families. To find out more about the project and for details on how to make your own Proud2Be Video or to get involved in other ways, head to http://proud2beproject.org/.

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CrowOutAIDS


2011
12.27

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UNAIDS has launched a new project CrowdOutAIDS to harness the power ofsocial media and connect with young people to crowdsource a UNAIDS youthstrategy on HIV. We talk to Mikaela Hildebrand to find out more.

 

G:  What is CrowdOutAIDS?

MH: CrowdOutAIDS is a collaborative project to develop new ways for UNAIDS to work with young people in the AIDS response. It is the first time the UN is collaboratively developing an actionable strategy on HIV and young people using online technologies, and voluntary offline meet-ups around the world.

Through online tools and crowdsourcing technology, CrowdOutAIDS will help young people come together to crowdsource a UNAIDS youth strategy on HIV.

The aim is to rebuild UNAIDS’ work with young people from the ground up.

 

G: The focus of CrowdOutAIDS is youth. Why so?

MH: Young people account for 41% of all new HIV infections among adults globally, and about 5 million young people are living with HIV.

When young people have a firm place at the decision-making table able to influence policy and programme development from start to end, and mobilize for change on some of the sensitive issues that the response to HIV touches upon, we will see a more efficient response that meets the needs of young people. Young people are also early adopters of new technology and new modes of communication which can be leveraged in the repose to HIV.

 

G: The website says, “UNAIDS needs a new approach”. What’s been the current approach till now and what have been its shortcomings?

MH: 30 years into the HIV epidemic the climate is shifting. Our approach has focused on working with a ‘set’ constituency, important groups that have taken a lead to deliver on AIDS. We believe it is important in moving forwards to build bridges to establish new and strategic alliances with youth networks and organization who work in related areas to reach the ambitious goals UN members stats have committed to in the UN Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS adopted by the General Assembly, in June 2011.

New communications tools also allow for a new ways of collaborating, organizing, mobilizing young people across borders; we need to leverage these new tools for a better, more informed response to AIDS.

 

G:  How is CrowdOutAIDS reaching out to young people?

MH: CrowdOutAIDS uses social media tools like Facebook, Twitter and Renren to reach out to young people. We are also using email. In addition, we are working with youth networks on the ground that have many members in their organizations as well as contacting large youth networks that we have previously not engaged with.

 

G:  What is the UNAIDS Mandate? How do you plan to incorporate the views of so many people?

MH: UNAIDS, is an innovative partnership that leads and inspires the world in achieving universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. UNAIDS fulfills its mission by:

  • Uniting the efforts of the United Nations system, civil society, national governments, the private sector, global institutions and people living with and most affected by HIV;
  • Speaking out in solidarity with the people most affected by HIV in defense of human dignity, human rights and gender equality;
  • Mobilizing political, technical, scientific and financial resources and holding ourselves and others accountable for results;
  • Empowering agents of change with strategic information and evidence to influence and ensure that resources are targeted where they deliver the greatest impact and bring about a prevention revolution; and
  • Supporting inclusive country leadership for sustainable responses that are integral to, and integrated with, national health and development efforts.

Crowdsourcing enables UNAIDS to reach a much broader constituency though an open and transparent process, in line with the rights of young people to participate in decision-making processes that affect them.

Each of the 8 online Open Forums is staffed with a community mobilizer. Every week the community mobilizer produces a short summary report that is posted on the CrowdOutAIDS blog for community review. Based on the discussions in the Open Forums a survey will be developed where the key issues raised are ranked by the community to decide what should be included in the final document.

 

Based on these key priorities UNAIDS will launch an application that allows participants to submit concrete actionable ideas to be included in the strategy that corresponds to the key issues prioritized by the community. The best ideas will be voted on through the “wisdom of the crowd.”

In the final phase, a Wikipedia-like platform will be launched where elected representatives from the 8 regional forums will collaboratively write up the strategy document, live. The CrowdOutAIDS community will be able follow the drafting process in real time and comment via a chat function.

The output document, shaped as an action plan, should be in place by mid-January. UNAIDS has committed to work with young people in the AIDS response to implement this action plan with the caveat that it needs to be within the mandate of the organization.

 

G: How does one partner with CrowdOutAIDS?

MH: There are several ways to partner with CrowdOutAIDS: By engaging and spreading the word about the 8 online forums. By hosting an offline CrowdOutAIDS Open Forum. As a media representative, you can also join our network of CrowdOutAIDS bloggers. If you are interested in partnering with CrowdOutAIDS  write an email to ngl@unaids.org

 

G:  Are there any offline activities planned as well?

MH: Yes, we are mobilizing a network of volunteers who can self-organize offline CrowdOutAIDS Open Forums. The purpose of these meetings is to ensure that young people who live in areas where there is low internet penetration have an opportunity to provide input to the process. However, all young people no matter where they live, are more than welcome to volunteer and take the online conversation offline and host a forum.

 

G: How has been the response till now?

MH: The response so far has been great with over 2500 young people signing up. Discussions are ongoing in all the regions of the world, and we are growing by the day. This is the first time the UN has used online tools for policy/strategy development, and we are excited to see how this unfolds over the next few weeks as the community grows.

 

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Project Bolo


2011
10.24

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By documenting the experiences of 20 out and proud people, Project Bolo is the first of its kind project that tries to reconstruct the gay rights movement in India. In a candid interview, Sridhar Rangayan tells more about BOLO.

Tell us about Project Bolo

For the first time in India, 20 LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) persons in four cities open up in a candid manner to offer an inside view into their lives, views and accomplishments in PROJECT BOLO, meaning ‘Project Speak Up’. These in-depth video interviews walk us through their lives – their growing up years, sexual explorations, coming out to family/friends/media, their romances and relationships, their fearless career paths and their pioneering accomplishments.

Project Bolo Vol1 contains interviews with 20 LGBT persons from Mumbai, Pune, New Delhi, Lucknow & Hyderabad:

Aditya Bandopadhyay, Ashok Row Kavi, Betu Singh, Bindumadhav Khire, Dalip Daswani, Gauri Sawant, Geeta Kumana, Giti Thadani, Hoshang Merchant, Jehangir Jani, Lachi, Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, Manvendra Singh Gohil, Nisha, Parmesh Shahani, R Raj Rao, Ruth Vanita, Saleem Kidwai, Shivananda Khan, Sunil Gupta

Each of them bring a different slice of life experience, a different piece of history, a different tile of India… to form a rich mosaic, a rich tapestry of Indian LGBT life, history and movement; that is ‘Project Bolo’.

 

How was the project conceptualised?

In 1990, when we started publication of Bombay Dost, the general perception was that there are no homosexuals in India and it was a Western concept. In fact, it was even alleged that gay men existed only in the head of one ‘out’ gay man –  Ashok Row Kavi!! When we went asking for facilities, services and rights for LGBT persons, the constant question was – where are they, we don’t see them. The LGBT community themselves were still fraught with doubt and anxiety, ‘What happens if I come out?’ So, a majority of LGBT persons have largely remained in the closet and, till recently, people who were out could be counted on one’s fingertips.

Most of the time people would ask who are the LGBT persons in India? All we see are a couple of activists. I wanted that to change. I wanted to show that there are writers, filmmakers, lawyers, sculptors, potters, historians, dancers, outreach workers and even corporate white-collar professionals who are queer! And each one of them lives a successful life interweaving his / her sexuality with their professional life with dignity.

 

Who all are associated with the project?

Project Bolo is produced by The Humsafar Trust in association with Solaris Pictures. It is supported with a grant from UNDP India. Producer for The Humsufar Trust is Vivek Anand and Concept & direction is by me. I have also conducted all the interviews, edited the transcripts and also designed the DVDs, book and the website. With small budget projects, one has to be a jack of all trades! Like Subhransu Das (Chintu) is our cameraman, lightman, sound recordist, still photographer and even had to lug most of the equipments!

 

What do you hope to achieve/highlight via this project?

This multi-generational, pathbreaking Indian LGBT Oral History Project also flagposts important milestones of the Indian LGBT movement from the early 60s to today – where did people meet, cruising places, the early efforts at forming groups in Mumbai and New Delhi, the first gay newsletter, the first lesbian book, uncovering historical evidence of same-sex literature and iconography, the formation of LGBT organizations and various advocacy efforts leading to the historic Delhi High Court verdict on July 2nd 2009 decriminalizing homosexuality.

I want Project Bolo to serve as an inspiration for the younger LGBT persons who are trying to come to terms with their sexuality and sexual orientation. I want to demystify and deshroud homosexuality and highlight the fact that being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender is not a fashion statement, but they- their hopes, happiness, anguish and agonies- are as real and human as anyone else.

I want Project Bolo to also be used as an archive, a repository for anyone doing research on Indian LGBT topics.

 

What did you look for in the persons you interviewed?

One of the first criteria is that they have to be Out & Proud as gay, lesbian or transgender person. They had to have a sense of history of the LGBT movement because they were not only telling their personal stories, but through them we are able to reconstruct the historical progress of the movement and the flagposts. The other important aspect was that everyone who agrees to become part of Project Bolo becomes part of history. They are speaking loud and clear out to the world that they are queer and there is no erasing that part of them anymore. Project Bolo is the ‘final and definitive coming out’ process. Coming out cannot be a revolving door, where one day you speak out about your sexuality and the next day you go back into the closet.

 

What were the hurdles that you faced during the project?

One of the first hurdles was finding funding for the project. I conceived this project in March 2009. It was selected as one of the 25 ‘projects for change’ from South Asia for the International Programme on LGBT Rights conducted in Stockholm by SIDA alongwith RFSU and RFSL. The project was developed in consultation with experts from UK, USA and Sweden. But the project still remained unfunded till Vivek Anand, CEO of The Humsafar Trust stepped in as Producer. He got UNDP India on board and they have been extremely supportive of LGBT issues – both health and rights – in India. They granted us a small seed fund.

However this funding was just enough to take a small crew of 3 persons to shoot the interviews. So everyone had to be a master of multi tasking! What was good about it was that it made the interviewees comfortable and the interviews intimate.

I hope that through Bolo we will be able to empower more people to come out and speak the truth.

 

Are these 20 people the only one that would be in Project Bolo or do you plan to interview more people in the future?

Vol 1 consists of 20 interviews. I plan to start working on Vol 2 which will cover interviews with LGBT persons in Kolkata and eastern India as well as Bangalore and Chennai. Some of the early footprints of LGBT activism can be found in these cities. I would love to talk to Pawan Dhall to document the making of Pravartak, the fantastic gay newsletter that used to be published in the 90s. Also talk about the first gay pride march ever in India held in Kolkata in 1999. Of course they had to call it ‘Friendship Walk’ because everything was so underground then! The mission of Project Bolo is to unearth these wonderful brave initiatives and document it as part of Indian LGBT movement history.

 

Any personality/activist you would love to interview for the Project, whom you haven’t interviewed yet?

A lesbian couple in Bombay who were part of the earliest LBT activism. They are amazing and would be able to provide a fantastic insight into the struggles of lesbian women in the 80s and 90s. They have sort of totally gone underground and quiet. I just have to charm them into talking to Project Bolo.

And I would like to interview Hoshang Merchant all over again… he is not only a laugh riot, but he has a fantasticworldview and a sense of global LGBT history with all his travels – from US to Palestine to Iran! Do you know he has actually been part of the legendary Mattachine Society meetings in the US in the late 1960s!

 

Share with us some special moments/memories while being associated with the project.

Every moment with the Bolo interviewees was magical. It was a trip down several memory lanes – from the closeted hurried encounters in parks and buses in the 60s to 80s to the first attempts at organizing in the 90s to the euphoria of liberation post reading down of Sec 377 recently- it is a rollercoaster of emotions. While Dalip Daswani’s highly charged narration of the empowering Red Rose meeting in a café in Delhi brought gooseflesh and Hoshang Mechant’s sexual dalliances on the streets of San Fransisco made me giggle, Gauri Sawant’s loss of family and her longing for her father brought tears to my eyes.

Going to Lucknow and talking to Saleem Kidwai was very special. His large old-fashioned house stocked with books and posters gave us a sense of history and culture. He has, over the years, painstakingly collected books, newspaper cuttings and photographs of writings and art on same-sex topics. It is mindboggling.

Another special moment was to meet the reclusive Giti Thadani, the first out lesbian woman in India who has also traveled the length and breadth of India documenting sculptures, paintings and murals in her amazing study of Indian same-sex iconography. She talks about how history has been modified, altered and twisted by people over the years. That is a sad testimony of the havoc wrecked by colonialization.

 

How has been the response till now?

Project Bolo has just gone live online and we are now inviting people to the website www.projectbolo.com to watch the videos, rate and comment. I want people to join the Bolo group on Vimeo at http://vimeo.com/groups/bolo/ and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/Project.Bolo.LGBT to share their views and strengthen discussions.

Project Bolo will be screened at conferences and wokshops and taken to colleges and universities across India.

I want Project Bolo to become a movement towards higher visibility of LGBT persons and greater acceptance of us by the society.

Aditya Bandopadhyay being interviewed for Bolo

 

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Anna Tum aaGAY Barho – Hum Tumhare Saath Hai


2011
10.17

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Agnivo Niyogi writes about the lessons that lgbt community can learn from the popular agitation by social crusader Anna Hazare

For the last four months, one man has ruled our television sets and reached out to people across cities in India. Baburao Hazare popularly known as Anna has changed the course of political protests in modern Indian history. Suddenly, the urban youth, perceived as selfish and indifferent, came out to support this phenomenon. We can always debate the merits of the movement led by Mr Hazare, but we cannot take away from him the credit of revolutionizing the concept of protests.

As a member of the LGBT community, I was rather amused at the events that unfolded throughout August. Keeping aside political beliefs and the cause for which Anna stood, I definitely salute him for the mass frenzy that he created. Also, it intrigued me, could we as a community not emulate Hazare to dispel the social ostracization that we face? To this effect I jotted down the following lessons we could learn from the massive outpouring of emotions in favor of Anna Hazare:

Media

Undoubtedly, media played the most important role in creating brand Anna. With 24X7 electronic media virtually filling in for a PR medium and the constant updates on social media, Team Anna made sure people were kept abreast about their actions whether or not they wanted to.

LGBT community (or the “elite” section of it) has an effective presence on social media. From groups on Facebook to accounts on Twitter, almost every NGO working for queers can be found on the web world. India already has several online magazines with a massive reader base. Social media platforms are well used by the community. But the target audience is rather limited. Except for community members, hardly anyone is deeply involved with these pages (unless they are connected to the movement). For that matter, for many community members, online media begins and ends with socializing and dating sites.

A few days back I was watching this video on YouTube where employees at Pixar were telling their coming out stories. Why can our community not promote more such videos and views in the mainstream? If the people are unwilling to lend an ear, why can’t we scream them out of slumber?

The engagement of the queer community with mainstream electronic media is also limited to specific days like July 2. If a public opinion has to be built up, media has to be used to its optimum. I feel we are lacking to that effect.

Unity in Diversity

The divisions within the LGBT community are not unknown to any. The “manly” guys look down upon the pansies, transgenders and bisexuals are untouchables, like the mainstream society lesbian females are neglected in the queer society! Lest we forget, “Voices against 377” brought together over thirty NGOs under one umbrella. Such a unity is normally hard to come by. Here too, we have a lot to learn from Team Anna.

India Against Corruption was a motley of several NGOs bordering from the ultra left to the reactionary right. Ideological differences forgotten, they came together to fight a cause which they thought was necessary – Jan Lokpal Bill. Even in the core group, there were elements that were allegedly close to the government and some who were explicitly unwavering to any proposal that came from the enemy ranks. Maintaining such a coalition is an arduous task, which was well supported by the image that Brand Anna enjoyed among the public.

Does the battle for social and legal equality of gays have a face? Think of Nepal, Sunil Babu Pant- who also happens to be a member of parliament – represents the queer community. In India, we lack that. Instead we have a health minister who compares homosexuality to a disease bred from foreign shores. Even if we can come up with a face, can we make a show of our strength and unity?

Political & Celebrity Support

A huge cause of the apparent success of Team Anna was the constant support it received from a large section of the Bollywood celebrities, Page 3 socialites, and of course a section of the anti ruling party politicians. That immensely helped in mobilizing the campaign for the JLP. Anupam Kher, Chetan Bhagat, Arindam Chowdhury, Shekhar Kapoor had virtually become the spokespersons of the “Democratic Party of Anna”. The Ram Leela stage was used by and large by almost anyone who had a mission to fulfill – whether it was Aamir Khan or Ashoke Pandit.

The queer community does enjoy the backing of several social icons. Filmmaker Onir is himself a part of the community and has been rather active on the social sphere to promote the cause we wish to champion. That apart, celebrities like Celina Jaitley have always rendered their support whenever necessary. People like Rituporno Ghosh who enjoy a cult status in Bengal have risen over salacious gossip and inane criticism for sexuality and shown the world that he stands for what he is.

But sadly on the political front, the gay community lags far behind the Anna phenomenon. Although the last Bangalore Pride Celebrations had the blessings of Janata Dal (S), and the Left parties have always “spoken” of their support to the cause of LGBT (more from their theoretical and ideological point of view and less in practicality), most national or regional political parties go tightlipped on the issue of a legal sanction of same sex marriages. In this era of vote bank politics, hope a feeling of “Sadbhavana” brings together right thinking people together to deliver justice to the community.

Obstinacy

This may sound a bit too harsh but truth always sounds bitter. The Team Anna has been (and quite fairly) accused of obstinacy from many quarters. Refusing to budge from their position, they harped on passing the Jan Lokpal Bill (although several flaws in the legislation had been pointed out by many noted lawyers and constitutional experts; but that can be settled in some other article). And even after the temporary truce with the unanimous resolution passed by Indian parliament, Anna has queered the pitch for passage of ONLY his team’s version of the Bill sans amendments.

Should the queer community emulate him? Should we hold the whole system at ransom to get our demands passed? A legislation decriminalizing article 377 and guaranteeing legal status to same sex marriages is long pending. Is the community’s patience not thinning away? After all, United Nations has recognized LGBT rights as human rights and India is a signatory nation.

Shall Ramleela witness more leela after the highest court of the nation passes its verdict on the judgment delivered by Justice A P Shah on July 2, 2009? Time will tell.

 

 

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IGNOU introduces Gender Studies Course


2011
08.24

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The second batch of IGNOU’s Master degree programme in Women’s & Gender Studies started from 16th August. IGNOU or Indira Gandhi Open University is India’s largest open university offering courses on a wide array of subjects and when it launches a course on Gender Studies, it definitely marks a shift in how things are fast changing in India. Though currently available only as a full time on campus course, the university plans to launch the course in distance mode too from next year.

In just a year, the batch strength has doubled, indicating the rising demand for queer and gender studies among the student fraternity. Divided into four semesters, the two year course, apart from covering topics on feminist movement and issues, also deals with the queer movement in India. “Most of the universities that offer the course focus on women related issues. Though they call it gender studies, but mostly they deal with women studies only,” told Dr. Himadri Roy, Associate Professor at the School of Gender and Development Studies in IGNOU, who is also the Programme Coordinator of the course. “What I feel is that gender not only means women, but men and other sex too. We have tried to incorporate all these aspects in our course. When we were developing the course, we called in people who are dealing with it from all the places. We also tried to compare the syllabus at Berkley, Stanford and other western universities where this is taught and then formulated our syllabus,” he added. Thus, the final syllabus has modules on Queer Liberation, Gender and Masculinity, Queer cinema etc.

The current full time MA course gives the students an option of an exit point at PG Diploma Level after the first year. “If after one year anyone wants to leave the course because they got a job or for some other reason, in that case we award them the PG Diploma degree,” explained Dr. Roy. IGNOU will be launching the course in distance mode from January 2012 as a one year PG Diploma, with centers in 13 cities across India, including Guwahati, Shillong, Jammu, Hyderabad, Cochin and Pune. The University hopes to launch the MA programme in distance mode by the year 2013. Dr. Himadri Roy anticipates that the distance programme will be much more popular than the current on-campus one as many people who want to undertake Gender Studies are working professionals who cannot enroll for a full time campus course. “Lots of NGOs are looking for courses like this. Before launching this programme, we had done a need assessment survey and found that most of the NGOs want PG Diploma. So we have kept an exit point after one year at PG Diploma Level and are launching it in distance mode first.”