LGBTQ

Brushstrokes: Privacy
An excerpt from a comic, two people stare at their phones and the text above them reads, 'why should we care about privacy'?

From maintaining safety to the maintaining of boundaries, privacy plays a crucial role in informing our sexuality and preserving our sexual wellbeing

By Curated Content
September 2, 2019
Brushstrokes: Privacy
The Metro and Desires
A picture of the Delhi metro

People in the city move from their homes to their workplaces and back to their homes. The production of this everyday rhythm of the city makes people accustomed to the sexual overtones that come with it.

By Manvendra
August 1, 2019
The Metro and Desires
Short Film: Oruvannukku Oruththi? (A Man For a Woman?)
A still from the film 'Oruvannukku Oruththi'

Our sexuality is often in flux – being manoeuvred (sometimes in ways we cannot control) by the crashing waves of societal expectations, circumstances, and our own choices and experiences. But the world continues to uphold a fixed, rigid idea of sexuality, and continues to confine us within this idea, and therein lies the conflict.

By Curated Content
August 1, 2019
Short Film: Oruvannukku Oruththi? (A Man For a Woman?)
Does the Underwear Brand Really Matter?
Imagie of an underwear with the word 'grindr' written all over it

After the underwear slips off, does the underwear brand really matter? The underwear may mean different things for different people. It may evoke desire or may hinder access.

By Andy Stephen Silveira
June 1, 2019
Does the Underwear Brand Really Matter?
Editorial: Diversity and Sexuality
abstract art showing diversity of experiences

In our mid-month issue, we have the second part of the Shikha Aleya’s interview with six different people talking about aspects of sexuality and diversity from their own particular space of personal knowledge, as well as work, advocacy, art and activism across diverse fields.

By TARSHI
May 15, 2019
Editorial: Diversity and Sexuality
Why Drag?
A drag queen dressed in a long dress and with a red wig and makeup

In my 27 years of existence, I’ve embodied various personas and roles. Even today, I behave slightly differently in the office, around parents, at a party and when I’m alone in my room. In the mornings I’m often a lawyer, whereas during evenings I become an artist.

By Curated Content
May 15, 2019
Why Drag?
In Families With Same-Sex Parents, The Kids Are All Right
Picture of two lesbian mothers carrying their child

The researchers also concluded there was no evidence that children raised by a single parent or same-sex couples were less competent or well-rounded than other children. If anything, studies of single-parent families show these men and women are more flexible in their parenting styles than they are given credit for.

By Curated Content
May 15, 2019
In Families With Same-Sex Parents, The Kids Are All Right
Interview: Diversity and Sexuality
Interview: Abstract shapes symbolising diversity of voices

For the two-part interview section of this month’s In Plainspeak, Shikha Aleya spoke to a few individuals who continue to push the boundaries of their work, art, and social norms, and expand the understanding of diversity and sexuality.

By Shikha Aleya
May 1, 2019
Interview: Diversity and Sexuality
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
Engaging With Diversity and Sexuality in Education
Still from educational video, 'itsy bitsy spider'

From my experiences, I find that diversity is not an end unto itself. Instead, it is a tool for reflection, a mirror that shows not only who we, and the society we live in, are in the present, but what we aspire to be in the future.

By Dana Burton
May 1, 2019
Engaging With Diversity and Sexuality in Education
Multiple Generations, Same-Sex Couples, Many In-Laws: The Indian Family is Changing
Queer Families: Jyotsna Gokhale is one of 12 people who live together across three generations in four flats in an apartment building in New Delhi. | Photo Credit: Dinesh Krishnan

The Indian family is changing. There’s no ‘ideal family’ defined by children or lineage. It comes in different shapes and sizes.

By Curated Content
March 18, 2019
Multiple Generations, Same-Sex Couples, Many In-Laws: The Indian Family is Changing
Queer Fanfiction and the Possibility of Queer Happy Endings
fanart of harry and draco from harry potter, reimagined as a queer couple

Fanfiction was more than just writing your own stories about the characters or the setting of your favourite book or TV show; it was a questioning of the dominant mainstream pop culture narrative as a whole.

By Rohini Banerjee
December 15, 2018
Queer Fanfiction and the Possibility of Queer Happy Endings
Androgynous Divinity: Celebrating Transsexuality in the Kolkata Durga Puja
Picture of an idol of goddess Durga, shown as half man half woman.

The replacement of the traditional Durga idol by that of the Ardhanarishwara, without any obdurate protest, highlights the true carnivalesque spirit of Kolkata’s most looked-forward-to festival.

By Kaustav Bakshi and Arnab Adak
November 15, 2018
Androgynous Divinity: Celebrating Transsexuality in the Kolkata Durga Puja
Love, Lust or Desire – Fusing Sex Back with Sexuality
Photo Credit: Alia Sinha (minor_grace - Instagram Handle)

While sex sometimes can be fun, and at other times complicated and frustrating –is always love, lust or desire: which one you are signing up for and which one did you want to actually explore?

By Nidhi Goyal
November 1, 2018
Love, Lust or Desire – Fusing Sex Back with Sexuality
In Transit
Picture of two trains, one already present on the platform, and another approaching the platform. They are both green in colour with off-white stripes on them

I could have called it transformation instead of transitioning. But it became clear to me that transitioning does not necessarily imply a caterpillar-butterfly story but that it means a gradual acceptance of the self (and the self is ever-transitioning); of being comfortable in your own skin (even if it means shedding skin); of perfecting your act (even if it means learning a few new things).

By Rishit Wishit
September 17, 2018
In Transit
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