A digital magazine on sexuality, based in the Global South: We are working towards cultivating safe, inclusive, and self-affirming spaces in which all individuals can express themselves without fear, judgement or shame

Dalit

Stairs
Cover Image by (CC BY 2.0)

The Editorial : Caste and Sexuality

A deeply entrenched issue in Indian society, the monster of caste, as Dr. Ambedkar called it, derides, tramples upon, rips asunder, and rapaciously brutalizes not only potential matings and marriages but also the most delicate and fragile burgeonings of desire as well as the aspirations of those who seek being other than what they are…
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Dhrubo Jyoti shouting slogan at a queer pride march. Someone is carrying a placard "Speak up against oppression".

Interview: Dhrubo Jyoti

In November 2015, during the Delhi Queer Pride March, three individuals held up signs that read, ‘Dalit, Queer, Proud’, establishing a framework that connects caste, gender and sexuality. In this issue of In Plainspeak we interview one of those three people, Dhrubo Jyoti, a journalist who self-identifies as a Dalit gender queer person and works…
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Dalit queer activist Bittu speaking into a mike at a podium.

Video Page: The Issue of Trans Victimization – Bittu

Is Brahminical patriarchy present in queer spaces? How can marginalised groups effectively advocate for themselves without relying too heavily on the ‘victimization’ narrative? Does the movement to end caste interact with the fight for queer rights? In this video, Dalit queer activist and academic Bittu explains the ways in which caste hierarchy appears in queer…
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Interview: Manjula Pradeep

Manjula Pradeep is a lawyer and former Executive Director of the Navsarjan Trust, a grassroots organisation working to empower Dalits throughout India. She is presently working as a freelancer and Senior Consultant at Manuski, a Pune-based organisation that “develops leadership in marginalised communities across India.” In this interview, she lays out the connections between caste,…
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A sarahah message, saying "Why do all gay Dalit boys who cry discrimination want to date fair skinned, upper caste, savarna, North Indian men?"
'Because F*** You, that's why'

F*** me, I am Dalit

I read The Failed Radical Possibilities of Queerness in India more than a year ago and it still makes me a little uncomfortable. For all the complications the narrative offered about gender, parental pressure, sexuality, love, and upper caste forums reaching out to Dalit-bahujan collectives, one line stuck with me: “What can I say about…
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The Casteist Charsobeesi[1] of Chachi 420

 Kamal Hassan has come to be quite a literal poster boy of all anti-caste memes lately. To reminisce about the innocence of decades gone by and better situate my current critique, I recently went back to some of his “classics”. Like most Tamil children growing up in that liminal limbo of the 90s, I had…
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