community

Interview: Pramada Menon: Why do families occupy so much of our headspace?
Picture of feminist activist Pramada Menon, she ihas short hair and is wearing a maroon kurta, black waistcoat and a red dupatta

Pramada Menon is a queer feminist activist who ponders about all matters she thinks are complex. When not pondering and…

By Radhika Chandiramani
May 1, 2015
Interview: Pramada Menon: Why do families occupy so much of our headspace?
Review: The Gaysi Zine is Envelope-Pushing, Occasionally Flawed, and Gorgeous
Painting of a woman sitting on a WC in a bathroom.

At the Delhi launch of the fourth edition of The Gaysi Zine, on January 21st at Max Mueller Bhavan, a…

By Guest Writer
February 1, 2016
Review: The Gaysi Zine is Envelope-Pushing, Occasionally Flawed, and Gorgeous
Rezubian, Bi or Straight?
Picture of a Japanese drag queen. She wears a big blonde wig and holds up a pink card.

Employing a direct line of questioning in a booming voice, a tall drag queen shining in a blood red sequinned gown, strides to our table and shoots the question at us. I am not entirely sure how to respond and neither is my friend.

By Niyati Dave
March 1, 2016
Rezubian, Bi or Straight?
How Do You Battle AIDS if No One Talks About Sex? KP’s Transgenders Speak Out
Photo of four transgender people.

In Peshawar alone, the community consists of over 500 transgenders. At least 20 per cent of these have AIDS. Their risk of contracting AIDS is higher, since 59 per cent of khawaja saras report to have at least one sexually transmitted infection.

By Curated Content
April 18, 2016
How Do You Battle AIDS if No One Talks About Sex? KP’s Transgenders Speak Out
Kink and Friendship
A red and white carnival eye mask.

My sexual desires may not be what certain people called ‘normal’ and I could not share this with my so called friends as I thought they would consider me weird. Surprisingly a woman in my hometown introduced me to the world of Kink. She was a regular housewife and with her for the first time I got to know what I actually needed and wanted and it went on for a good amount of time till I moved out of that place for many reasons.

By Sig
May 16, 2016
Kink and Friendship
Video Page: Being Laxmi: ‘I belong to the hijra, the oldest transgender community’
It's a still from the video, Laxmi, is smiling and wearing a pink bindi and saree, a silver nose pin. They have long hair, open in the photo and is wearing sindoor on their forehead.

Community – your friends, family, neighbours – can be a source of great strength and support. However, in exchange for…

By Curated Content
July 1, 2017
Video Page: Being Laxmi: ‘I belong to the hijra, the oldest transgender community’
Worlds Within Queer Worlds: Presence, Politics and Diversity
People marching at queer pride, with colourful clothes on

There is no singular way of being queer or performing queerness. We are all products of converging and diverging histories and our queerness is shaped by forces tangible and intangible in the everyday.

By Sohini Chatterjee
May 1, 2019
Worlds Within Queer Worlds: Presence, Politics and Diversity
When The Stigma Attached to Sex Deprives Women of Worker Status
Sex work and class: poster for the film 'chameli'

This stigma of caste, class and sexuality is a pervasive amalgamation of socio-cultural mindsets that take root and function in myriad complex ways, and paint working women in broad, sweeping, agency-less brush strokes.

By Mahika Banerji
June 1, 2019
When The Stigma Attached to Sex Deprives Women of Worker Status
Community And Sexuality: Learning A Politics Of Unbelonging

My politics demanded an alignment with my life, and as my personal life choices were almost always against the norms of society, this was the default option. As one moved away and tried to make communities of choice, however, there were newer lessons to be learnt.

By Chayanika Shah
January 2, 2020
Community And Sexuality: Learning A Politics Of Unbelonging
Brushstrokes: Finding Home
Excerpt from comic, "Finding Home"

For a lot of queer people, ‘home’ can hold complicated meanings. The space of one’s home can be fraught with bigotry and alienation, and be far from safe or comforting. And so, there is a quest to find alternate ‘homes’, to find a space where we feel truly accepted, safe and protected.

By Curated Content
April 1, 2020
Brushstrokes: Finding Home
How much support is enough?
A photograph of two individual’s hands, from their forearms. One of the individuals is clasping the others’ hand in theirs.

In the middle of this pandemic, can one seek sexual support in the form of a hook up with one’s best friend, ‘just because’? Is it redefining boundaries, is it sympathy sex, is it simple indulgence, or is it something that one or both might later resent?

By Asmi
November 2, 2020
How much support is enough?
The importance of family
A black and white photograph of an infant’s hand resting on an older individual’s outstretched palm.

Family, immediate and extended, is usually who you turn to. They are the ones who provide stress relief and reduce anxiety by boosting self-confidence and self-esteem and providing a protective shield. There is a sense of belongingness in good times and in bad.

By Elsa Marie D'Silva
November 2, 2020
The importance of family
Musings of a Sexuality Educator
Many question-mark shaped lights thrown together to give an effect of darkness, and two of them glowing. One is blue and the other is yellow.

To be a support system is to be a safe space for them where they can reflect upon, experiment with and understand themselves. A space where people not only come to terms with their individual selves, sexual or otherwise, but also where they become increasingly aware of their own rights.

By Anannya Chatterjee
November 2, 2020
Musings of a Sexuality Educator
Developing an Ethics of Care
A design of two arms outstretched, one holding out the Earth in its palm and the other reaching towards it.

Ethics of Care offers a normative paradigm that goes beyond the neat distinctions of morally guided ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ actions to incorporate social responsibility, wherein we learn how to shape our responses on the basis of the needs of a community’s members.

By Swarna Jain
November 16, 2020
Developing an Ethics of Care
Notes on seeing each other through
A photograph of the eye of a needle and many differently coloured threads passing through it, on a black background.

…even if people have little in common, once they enter these spaces of solidarity, they are connected to a larger community. These spaces become wellsprings of an unspoken sense of safety and mutual support between individuals of communities that share a sense of having been othered.

By Soumya Jayanti
November 16, 2020
Notes on seeing each other through
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