Traffic control refuses Mumbai Pride permission to march

in: http://gaystarnews.com/article/traffic-control-refuses-mumbai-pride-permission-march150113

Police give permission, but traffic control reject application for fifth Queer Azaadi Pride march in Mumbai, India


 

Traffic control has refused Queer Azaadi (freedom) Mumbai (QAM) permission to march through the city on Saturday 2 February.

Local police has agreed permission for the parade, which has been held every year since 2008, but traffic control rejected the organizers' application.

'They have just rejected our file without even meeting us or giving us any clear explanation,' organizer Pallav Patankar told Gay Star News.

'But we intend o speak to higher authorities and not let it go so easily.'

Patankar said he believed the hiccup was 'just Indian bureaucracy' rather than attempt to censor an expression of LGBT rights. He said there have been a lot of public protests in Mumbai recently and the authorities may feel that because QAM are not a political party, nor have political backing, 'we are the easiest voices to silence'.

'We, the LGBT community, walk the pride march to tell the nation that we are part of this country,' Patankar told Times of India. 'By denying us the right to march, we are being denied our right of free expression.'

The QAM festival started on Sunday with a kite flying event on Mumbai's Juhu Beach and a queer games competition.

The full program includes theatre, a meeting for families, a treasure hunt, an open mic night, films, a rock concert and a flashmob.

QAM 2012 was a resounding success despite police interrupting a pre-festival fundraiser at the behest of a maverick 'moral guardian'.

Last September police in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad refused permission for the first LGBT pride march there. 

 

 

http://gaystarnews.com/article/traffic-control-refuses-mumbai-pride-permission-march150113

India's longest running gay film festival celebrates sixth year

in: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/indias-longest-running-lgbt-film-festival-celebrates-sixth-year221112

Kolkata's queer film festival starts tomorrow, showing over 40 films

India’s longest running LGBT film festival will be celebrating its sixth year tomorrow (23 November).

The three-day 'Dialogues' festival in Kolkata, the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, will showcase more than 40 films of differing genres from coming-of-age dramas and experimental films to documentaries.

Nil, an Indian designer closely associated with the festival, believes it will offer something for everyone.

‘The number of films screened this year is almost double of last year’s. For the first time we are having parallel screenings,' he told the Hindustan Times.

The festival will also showcase 10 full length feature films from around the world, from countries like Germany, India, France and Peru.

The films shown will be a mix of mainstream releases and more obscure titles, including the acclaimed Eyes Wide Open from Israel.

The festival is organised by Sappho for Equality (SFE) and Pratyay Gender Trust (PGT).

Anindya Hajra, of PGT, said: ‘The festival primarily celebrates writers, directors, actors and their work dealing with LGBT and queer themes and issues. But over the years both LGBT and non-LGBT audiences have shown interest.’

The festival will open with the premiere of ‘Guide Gufran’, a film about self-discovery with themes on sexuality and spirituality.

http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/indias-longest-running-lgbt-film-festival-celebrates-sixth-year221112

India sees young LGBTs as a group for the first time

in: http://www.gaystarnews.com/

India has announced a draft youth policy that will regard the LGBT community and HIV/AIDS patients as groups that face stigma and need policy help

The Indian government is trying for the first time to focus on the problems of transgenders, gays and lesbians as a group that needs suitable policy interventions to deal with social or moral stigma.

In the draft national youth policy 2012, India recognizes youth not as a homogenous group but nine ‘target groups’ having differentials based on habitat, environment, socio-economic status of their families and their own lifestyles.

The highlights are the LGBT community and HIV/AIDS patients, who have both been categorised as groups that suffer from stigma.

‘Transgenders have for long been the butt of ridicule and derision of society. They have virtually lived a life of complete segregation from the mainstream,’ reads the draft policy.

‘The gays and lesbians have never been accepted in society as same-gender sex has always been treated in our society as perverted and immoral behaviour,’ it adds. ‘The result of these deeply embedded stereotypes and biases has been that gays and lesbians are reluctant to express their sexual preferences openly.’

The other seven 'target groups' are students, migrants, rural youth, tribal youth, those at risk (such as sex workers, drug users and trafficking victims), youths in violent conflicts (living in trouble spots), school dropouts and youths in institutional care, according to the Calcutta Telegraph.

Minister of youth affairs and sports Ajay Maken proposes to change the target age group from the existing 13-35 years to 16-30 years, which has drawn questions for ruling out most of the country’s so called ‘youth leaders’, if extended to politics.

Maken has also come up with a 'youth development index' that will regularly assess policy impact on indicators such as health, education, work amenities and election participation.

http://www.gaystarnews.com/

Transgender community demands civil, not special, rights

in: http://www.thehindu.com/

“Do we have to live with day-to-day discrimination our whole life?”

“Is it a sin to be born a hijra?” asked Sita, a member of the transgender community, narrating her story of pain and trauma at a public hearing on “Social Inclusion and Access to Justice to Transgender Community” here on Saturday.

“When anti-social elements treat you badly, you approach the police. But whom should you approach when police personnel themselves exploit you sexually,” she asked, highlighting the pattern of institutionalised exploitation of the transgender community.

“The police earlier used to harass us for gay sex, but after the Delhi High Court decriminalised it, they harass the community on the pretext of being prostitutes.”

Another transgender Laksmi poses another query: “If you sit on seats reserved for women in buses, they make you stand. And if you occupy the unreserved ones, then the men harass you. Is this the kind of day-to-day discrimination and social ostracisation we have to live with our whole life?”

Sita and Lakshmi were among the hundred-odd members of the transgender community who had came together to demand civil rights that are granted to every citizens of the country. They demanded that the civil society and the government put an end to their marginalisation and discrimination.

At the end of the public hearing, a jury headed by former Delhi High Court Chief Justice A.P. Shah, recommended the government recognise the transgender community on the basis of their sexual orientation and start welfare schemes for them as a matter of right. He also recommended that every State Government, like Tamil Nadu, form a Transgender Welfare Board and Transgender Commission to protect the human rights of the marginalised community.

While inaugurating the public hearing, Delhi High Court acting Chief Justice A. K. Sikri, said: “It is important for the judiciary to come out with bold pronouncements in support of this community. In the case of the disabled, courts have always taken a firm stand in their favour, which has made a lot of difference to their lives. I hope it is going to be the same for this community in future.”

“We need to understand as to what extent social exclusion, based on identity, is impacting their right to property and inheritance, denial of access to healthcare and social welfare schemes, including identity cards and livelihood options,” said Laya Medhini, director of the Centre for Legal Aid and Rights (CLAR), which co-organised the public hearing with the United Nations Development Programme, India.

Campaigner for rights for transgender community and writer Priya Babu said: “Unless the issue of our legal identity is resolved and we are classified as a gender and on the basis of which the government legislates for reservation for the transgender community at all levels, we are not going to win the battle against marginalisation, stigma and discrimination.”

Ambalika Roy, a lawyer attached with CLAR, said the process of inclusion of transgender community has to start right at the school level so that children with transgender orientation don't have to leave school, as almost all transgender participants at Saturday's hearing had to.

Ambalika said awareness at all levels was resulting in transgender-friendly policy making decisions like the census doing a headcount of the transgender community for the first time in India and the Karnataka High Court appointing a transgender in the High Court to deal with their cases. But she also added that these steps were still very few and the government had a long way to go to ensure a dignified life and human rights to the marginalised community.

http://www.thehindu.com/

Tamil Nadu transgender model to compete in international beauty pageant

via: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/tamil-nadu-transgender-malika-in-pattaya-beauty-pageant/1/155032.html

In a country where most homosexuals and transgendered people still live a life that isn't always theirs, Chennai's Malika has broken at least one psychological glass ceiling.

She'll be the first Indian to participate in the one-of-itskind beauty pageant for transgendered people, Miss International Queen, on November 4 in Pattaya, Thailand. The event is organised every year by the sex tourism haven's transsexual and transgender cabaret called the Tiffany Show Pattaya.

Born as a male child, Malika (28), has undergone four major surgeries and many medical treatments subsequently to turn into a female model. But the hotel management and catering graduate did not get any modelling assignment because she's transgendered.

Her entry into the Miss International Queen pageant therefore means a lot to her - and not because she was chosen from a field of 18 Indian hopefuls for the Pattaya extravaganza. Malika, who's also an active blogger and a member of the male sexual health NGO, Sahodaran, says it's an honour for India's transgendered community.

Malika was on a visit to Thailand where she met transgendered individuals who advised her to take a shot at the beauty pageant. She did it, and now she feels vindicated - the models who had refused to work with her, she says, actually felt threatened by her. Her only worry is that she doesn't have a sponsor yet.

The self-described "queen" and "cross-dresser" says she loves being a woman. "All I know is that I wasn't asked what sex I wanted to be when I was born. They just decided that I was to be a 'man'," she writes in her blog http:// malikatv. blogspot. com .

Malika writes that she always wanted to express "girlish feelings", "play house with a doll", and "be like mummy when I grow up, not daddy who just watches TV and grunts". And she offers beauty tips and stitching instructions on her blog to emphasise her femininity. Will Pattaya be her life's biggest moment? Watch this space.

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/tamil-nadu-transgender-malika-in-pattaya-beauty-pageant/1/155032.html