The Indian State never tires of pontificating and appealing to alleged Naxalites/ Maoists/ terrorists/ militants/ separatists/ freedom fighters to shun violence, come under the Indian Constitution and adopt parliamentary path. The LGBTQIA movement has been peaceful; legal & constitutional; and democratic. Why is Parliament then vary of discussing the Gay Manifesto? By way of partial repeal of Section 377 Indian[Read More...]
© Reuters A trans individual’s fight for survival begins from their adolescence. Majority of them are relinquished by their families, denied formal schooling, and have severely confined access to employment opportunities. They are constrained into begging and sex work to make an earning. Additionally, there is a perennial verbal and sexual maltreatment in the community. Even quality medical care[Read More...]
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused hardships among people, and even more so, for the most marginalised groups in the society. At a time when even the more privileged groups began scouring stores for food and medicines, one could realize the plight of the transgender community seeking rations and medicines only to face discrimination and harassment. As always, shopkeepers sent them[Read More...]
Touted as one of the biggest milestones in the movement by the LGBTQA community for equal rights, the abrogation of section 377 of the Indian penal code in 2018 by the Supreme Court was considered as a landmark judgment with an expectation that the situation of those people will considerably improve. However, even after 2 years of the judgement, the[Read More...]
Recently, actor Samyuktha Hegde and her friends were assaulted by All India Congress Committee member and civic activist Kavitha Reddy at Bangalore’s Agara Lake. Reddy can be seen in videos put up by Hegde on her Instagram threatening to hit the women if they wore “such” clothes, charging at the women to hit them, inciting a mob to shame them[Read More...]
By Dr. P. S. Sahni & Shobha Aggarwal The rights of people with different sexual orientations – Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual needs to be respected; all the laws that criminalise or discriminate against the LGBTQIA community should be abolished. India should pass laws that allows marriage among same sex and LGBTQIA communities. – A People’s Manifesto for[Read More...]
The political left, and much of mainstream feminism, is characterized by an analysis of how systems and institutions shape our choices, a critique of capitalist media, and a commitment to a scientific/materialist worldview. But when faced with radical feminism’s compelling critiques of patriarchy, leftists and many feminists routinely abandon those principles. Radical feminist critiques of prostitution, pornography, and transgender ideology[Read More...]
In the current squabble on the liberal/progressive/left side of the fence over so-called “cancel culture”—in which one open letter in favor of freedom of expression led to a rebuttal open letter in favor of a different approach to freedom of expression—I can offer a report on the experience of being canceled. Several times over the past few years I’ve been[Read More...]
For those of you who don’t know the meaning of those alphabet letters, here you go: lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, queer, alternative sexually. Now, I will add that there are lots of lesbian seagulls. So don’t imagine for a moment please that we are alone in alternative sexual behavior. I read a factual article on the topic. One of my[Read More...]
September 6th, 2018 will perhaps be memorable in the history of socio-political struggles in India, not only as an achievement of LGBTIQKHA+ organising and movement, but as a legitimization of principles of democracy, the fundamental rights of equality, justice and freedom. Freedom of choice, right to form ‘companionships’, ‘be it physical, mental, sexual emotional’ (all quotes from Navtej Singh Johar[Read More...]
