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Debanuj DasGupta with Mathew Stuart Jarret. Stewart Jarret plays the character of Belize in the play & the Bethesda Fountain is one of the key Manhattan sites recreated on stage for the play Angels in America.

AIDS, Melancholia & Queer memory

In this essay, I revisit my early struggles with AIDS diagnosis during the summer of 2003. The recollections allow me to rethink how the New York cityscape and coming out about my HIV status to my parents in India shapes a racialised experience with HIV and AIDS, family relations, and transnational migration. Such a racialised experience is erased within Tony Kushner’s Angels in America.

By Debanuj DasGupta

April 16, 2018

AIDS, Melancholia & Queer memory

Screengrab of the video which shows an animated girl, drawn in a pink outline, holding up a placard with messages that educate about queerness and invisbility.

Video: A Beginner’s Guide to Growing Up Queer and Invisible

This video series draws upon childhood and teenage memories to offer an insightful, humorous and often poignant Beginner’s Guide to Growing Up Queer and Invisible.

By Curated Content

April 2, 2018

Video: A Beginner’s Guide to Growing Up Queer and Invisible

Acceptance, Agency, and A Womens’ Hostel

In a way, Mrs Chatterjee’s worst fears had been confirmed. The hostel was indeed dangerous – not because of “raging hormones”, but because wewere constantly initiating discussions and circumstances which challenged the patriarchal status quo.

By Anonymous

March 5, 2018

Acceptance, Agency, and A Womens’ Hostel

Video Page: Mere Saathi

Saathi IIT Bombay, an LGBTQ resource group of students and staff at IIT Bombay welcomed new entrants in 2015 with…

By Curated Content

February 1, 2018

Video Page: Mere Saathi

A young (Kashmiri) couple sitting on a bench facing backwards, looking at the garden.

How young Kashmiris are finding love in the time of conflict and curfew

The internet is playing a major role in activism in the Valley, and love and relationships too Onaiza Drabu Since…

By Curated Content

June 15, 2017

How young Kashmiris are finding love in the time of conflict and curfew

An Indian woman sitting in her speaking to a camera. She is wearing a green saree with red blouse, and a red bindi.

Video Page: Sexuality and the Indian LGBT Movement

“For the first time in India, 20 LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) persons in four cities open up in…

By Curated Content

December 5, 2016

Video Page: Sexuality and the Indian LGBT Movement

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Themes

In Plainspeak publishes one issue every month, with a single theme running across two months. Our aim is to expand safe, inclusive self-affirming spaces.

CURRENT ISSUE:

June-July 2026: Information and Sexuality

We value information and trust it to be based on fact. But today, with a surfeit of information, we are often hard put to sift facts from fiction, and truth from purposefully concocted lies. Misinformation (inaccurate information) and disinformation (deliberately created untruths) affect not just political elections and our responses to global events, but also how we think about sexuality in our daily lives. Our sexual behaviours, choices and actions are influenced by the information swirling around us, be it through the ‘news’ we receive, the papers/books we read, social media posts and AI or LLM-generated content we consume, or the stories we repeat or hear from our friends. From malicious deep fakes at one end to beautifully presented fact-based information at the other, information can be manufactured by anyone these days. Information is power, and in the control of information lies the control of power. For this issue of In Plainspeak, we ask: in the realm of sexuality, who puts out information? For what purpose? Who controls it? What does information do? Does it empower us? Confuse us? Paralyse us into inaction, despair? What sorts of information, and from which sources, affirm our sexuality, improve our health and nurture our wellbeing?

जून-जुलाई 2026: जानकारी और यौनिकता

हम जानकारी को महत्व देते हैं और उस पर भरोसा करते हैं कि वह तथ्यों पर आधारित है। लेकिन आज, जानकारी की भरमार के चलते, हमारे लिए अक्सर तथ्यों को कल्पना से और सच को जान-बूझकर गढ़ी गई झूठी बातों से अलग कर पाना मुश्किल हो जाता है। ग़लत जानकारी (ग़लत सूचना) और भ्रामक जानकारी (जान-बूझकर गढ़ी गई झूठी बातें) न केवल राजनीतिक चुनावों और वैश्विक घटनाओं पर हमारी प्रतिक्रियाओं को प्रभावित करती हैं, बल्कि यह भी प्रभावित करती हैं कि हम अपनी रोज़मर्रा की ज़िन्दगी में यौनिकता के बारे में कैसे सोचते हैं। हमारे यौन व्यवहार, चयन और कार्य हमारे आस-पास मौजूद जानकारी से प्रभावित होते हैं – चाहे वह हमें मिलने वाली ‘ख़बरों’ के ज़रिए हो, हमारे द्वारा पढ़े जाने वाले अख़बारों/किताबों के ज़रिए, सोशल मीडिया पोस्ट और एआई यानी आर्टिफिशियल इंटेलिजेंस (AI – कृत्रिम बुद्धिमत्ता) या लैंग्वेज लर्निंग मॉडल (LLM – भाषा को समझने और बनाने वाला बड़ा मॉडल) द्वारा तैयार की गयी सामग्री के ज़रिए, या फिर उन कहानियों के ज़रिए जिन्हें हम अपने दोस्तों को दोहराते है या उनसे सुनते हैं। आजकल कोई भी जानकारी बना सकता है। ऐसी जानकारी जो एक तरफ़ नुकसान पहुँचाने वाले नकली डीपफेक वीडियो होते हैं, और दूसरी तरफ़ सही तथ्यों पर आधारित, अच्छे से पेश की गई जानकारी। जानकारी ही ताकत है, और जानकारी पर नियंत्रण में ही ताकत पर नियंत्रण छिपा होता है। इन प्लेनस्पीक के इस अंक में हम निम्न सवाल उठाएंगे। यौनिकता के क्षेत्र में जानकारी कौन देता है? किस मकसद से? इसे नियंत्रित कौन करता है? जानकारी हमारे साथ क्या करती है – क्या यह हमें सशक्त बनाती है, उलझन में डालती है, या हमें सहनशीलता और निराशा में धकेल देती है? किस तरह की जानकारी, और किन स्रोतों से मिलने वाली जानकारी, हमारी यौनिकता को स्वीकार करती है, हमारे स्वास्थ्य को बेहतर बनाती है और हमारे समग्र ख़ुशहाली को सहारा देती है?

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