Cross-dressing Pharaohs, Trans Politicians and Gay Poets
It's the seventh edition of Queering About!
Happy Wednesday!
If you're new - hello! If you're not - welcome back! We’re two queer journalists curating and writing about all things LGBTQIA+, from India and beyond.
Once again, it’s just one of us writing this week, as the other one is down with fever. Wholesome healing vibes are very welcome, guys ;_;
We don’t blame you if, like us, you’ve decided to drink some tea, cuddle into a comfy blanket and watch some favourite movies. So in this edition of Queering About, we’ve decided to put in lots of cheer and hope - both of which we need to get us ready to face the world again and fight the battles we need to. We hope you find some solace, if you need it.
On to this week’s stories, then…
And now, the news.
The biggest queer news to break from India this week is that transgender people here no longer need to undergo a medical examination to declare their desired gender. That’s according to the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules 2020, which the Ministry of Scoial Justice and Empowerment issued on Monday. It removes a major barrier for the trans community in being able to access systemic support. It also removes one of the clauses trans people had objected to in the 2019 draft of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, which said that a person such as a District Magistrate would have to issue a certificate ‘verifying’ a person’s identity.
(Side note: all of the reports we read on this says that trans people can now identify as their desired ‘sex’, which we think is because whoever wrote the articles did not do their homework on queer terminology.)
PM Modi spoke about the trans community at the UN General Assembly last week. He said that India is bringing in legal reforms for trans people. This is true, as we’ve covered in letters before this, but trans identities do not exist in a social vacuum and therefore the weaponisation of Hindu nationalism under the present government has affected the community strongly.
Madhya Pradesh has a trans candidate for a bypoll! Neha is generally known as Neha Kinnar. She is from the Bedia community and standing as an independent for a seat reserved for scheduled castes.
On that note, check out this article on more trans people moving into public life to hold elected and government posts in Karnataka. That’s also where the government has agreed to include trans people in the ‘OBC’ (Other Backward Class) reservation category for people from sections of society which are educationally or socially disadvantaged.
In other news, sprinter Dutee Chand, possibly India’s first openly gay athlete, is hoping to qualify for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Her plans to train in Germany were pushed back due to the coronavirus lockdowns. Fingers crossed she makes it!
India has become a signatory to an appeal to Poland to protect its LGBTQIA+ citizens. The open letter was signed by more than fifty diplomats from around the world, and co-ordinated by the Belgian embassy in Warsaw. As we’ve reported recently, ever since the re-election of President Andrezj Duda - whose campaign took an anti-LGBTQIA stance - Poland has faced pressure both from within the country and from the EU to end discrimination against queer people.
Over in Myanmar, the country’s first openly gay electoral candidate is fighting in the regional polls! Myo Min Tun decided to run for the post when some transgender friends told him about the harassment they faced from the police. Homosexuality is illegal in Myanmar.
Lots of good news from Japan! Japan Airlines has decided to stop using binary gendered greetings such as ‘ladies and gentlemen’, opting instead for gender-neutral terms such as ‘attention all passengers’ or ‘welcome everyone.’ Personally, we were hoping for theydies and gentlethem, but we’ll accept this.
And Tokyo will soon have its first permanent LGBTQIA+ centre! It’s called Pride House Tokyo and it will host events to raise awareness about community issues before and during the 2021 Olympics and Paralympics.
In the Caribbean - Barbados has proposed a referendum to legalise gay marriage. The island nation’s governor general Sandra Mason said in parliament that the country must have a “frank discussion” and “end discrimination in all forms.” Meanwhile, take a look at the country’s Prime Minister, Mia Mottley - yep, both leaders are women - going off at a BBC anchor for asking if people in Barbados will now be ‘allowed’ to be gay: “Is that a question you would ask in the United Kingdom? … I think the question is, should we discriminate against people because they’re gay? And we will not.”
Egypt next. A report by Human Rights Watch says that police in Egypt are creating fake profiles on dating apps to find and imprison gay, lesbian, bi and trans people. They’re charged with ‘debauchery’ and having ‘unnatural sexual desires.’ People have also said that they’re being physically and verbally abused in custody.
Some extremely French news for you: lots of people in the country have signed a petition asking President Macron to allow poets and (gay) lovers Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine to be interred together in the national mausoleum in Paris. They’re two of France’s most beloved poets, and both had to endure a lot of homophobic persecution in their time (the mid to late 1800s). But some people are mad. They called this a ‘21st century cultural power-grab.’
AMAZING news from Belgium. The country’s just appointed its Deputy Prime Minister, Petra De Sutter, who is a trans woman! She is a professor of gynecology, she transitioned at the age of 40, and she is now Europe’s most senior trans politician. Oh, the joy in seeing our elders thrive!
Huge news from the UK. Prep, the HIV prevention medication, is now free there! It’s available via the National Health Service to whoever may be eligible.
Good tidings for LGBTQ+ venues in London. Mayor Sadiq Khan has announced that the city will provide emergency funding to eleven of them. He said it’s because of the work they do to create safe havens for queer people to express themselves in.
And a study by the University of Exeter has found that literally 100 percent of non-binary people (who responded to the survey) would like to rearrange the way gender categories are approached in the UK's gender recognition certificates. These are the certificates that one gets if they want to change the gender they were assigned at birth. (They don’t have a non-binary gender option at all, as far as we can tell.) Also, the Spice Girls said trans rights. Go stream them now.
Big news from the US. A study there says that people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer or gender non-conforming are nearly four times as likely to be victims of violent crime than those outside such communities. It’s a staggering disparity. People from sexual and gender minorities also more likely to be harmed by someone they know well. Also, turns out that this may be the first study of this kind to have ever been undertaken in the US. Huh.
Another American study that could be helpful for queer people everywhere - a study by the University of California - San Francisco shows that gay, lesbian and bisexual people are much more likely to have migraines! The researchers said that they haven’t found out why yet, but suggested that increased stress due to institutional discrimination may be a factor. Dang.
And in a twist to 2020 that many people did not see coming, gay men in the US have taken over the hashtag ‘Pr*oud B’ys’ (we’re censoring it to avoid getting picked up by the mystical machines of Google) - because Star Trek actor George Takei told them to. Turns out that phrase is also the name of a designated white nationalist / supremacist hate group in the US. After President Trump asked them to ‘stand back and stand by’ during the presidential debate last week, searches for the group with the hashtag sky-rocketed. Takei and other gay men took over the tag to replace their hateful message of, well, racism, with messages of love. Aw!
What We’re Into:
🎧 This podcast called ‘De Taali - Life of a Transgender’ by Fida Khan. Words can’t express how glad we are to have found it.
♫ This isn’t strictly queer, but we do love lo-fi music, so here’s a desi lo-fi channel we’ve been binging on.
🎨 This cartoon about coming out that we think most queer folk can relate to, and all non-queer allies ought to read.
📷 We just discovered that the winner of season 1 of Canada’s Drag Race was an Indian-origin queen. They modelled for ‘dual drag’ for photographer Blake Morrow, and the results are incredible.
📷 Worried that a queer friend might be experiencing abuse during quarantine? Here’s a handy article to spot the signs. It could help you, too.
🎥 This incredible Tiktok explainer about sex, gender and biology in the simplest of terms. More of educational Tiktok, please.
📖 / 🎥 Need new books to replace the Horcruxes of She Who Must Not Be Named? Here’s a review of the book Dreadnought, about a transgender superhero. You can find the book here, or maybe ask a local indie bookshop if they could get you a copy?
♫ / 🎥 Any fans of the band Years and Years here? Front man Olly Alexander, our favourite twink, is in a new queer TV drama by Russell T Davies (of Doctor Who and Queer As Folk fame), and the trailer is out. It’s called It’s A Sin, it’s set in London in 1981 & it looks AMAZING.
🎥 Who knew we needed a crossover of the travel show British comedian Jack Whitehall hosts with his dad, and Queer Eye? Here it is, and it’s pretty great. Also this episode of Jack’s dad at his first drag show was adorable. Full episodes are on Netflix.
🎥 This history of the forgotten Egyptian pharaoh, Hatshepsut, who was born female but preferred to be represented as male, and possibly had a female lover. Also, this show is narrated by a puppet. It’s called Puppet History and is all-round excellent, tbh. It was created by Buzzfeed’s Shane Madej and Ryan Bergara, the Unsolved boys, and Steven Lim of Worth It, for their own very cool channel, called Watcher.
📖 We’re starting your reads off with a BANGER this time - it’s the story of Aparajita Ghosh, a trans woman from Kolkata who decided to become a sugar baby.
📖 This interview of Buddhist monk and Tibetan transgender icon Tenzin Mariko. She lives in India, by the way.
📖 This profile of Canada-based Indian-origin gay photographer, Sunil Gupta, filled with arresting images of his new retrospective in London.
📖 The story of a doctor who is a transgender woman, and who wants to change the MBBS syllabus in India to be more accurately representative of sex, sexuality and gender variations.
📖 And this piece poses an uncomfortable question for the more academic among us - is queer theory classist? A scholar points out that much of queer and gender theory tends to be formed in universities, which are inherently exclusionary spaces. Thanks to our very erudite friend on Twitter for bringing this essay to our notice.
Rest in Power
This is in memory of those who lost their lives to hate, and also dedicated to those whose passing goes unreported by the media.
Manisha Valmiki, the nineteen-year-old Dalit woman who was brutalised in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras, and who passed away from her injuries last week, and everyone else who loses their life to cis hetero uppercaste patriarchy in this country. We’re choosing to carry her name to honour her.
The womxn who continue to be under attack from similar power structures elsewhere: such as black transwomen Mia Green in Philadelphia and Kee Sam in Louisiana in the US; and an unnamed trans woman in Puerto Rico, along with five other trans people who are known to have been killed there this year.
Mental Health Resources:
Sahaya Help Line: 080-223 0959
Operates: Only on Tuesdays and Fridays, 7 pm - 9 pm
Sappho Helpline: +91-9831518320
Operates: 10 am – 9 pm
Space: (toll-free tele-counselling helpline) 1800111015
Operates: 10 am - 6 pm every day.
A list of other places to call if you need help, clarity, or just someone to talk to.
A non-exhaustive list of queer+ve therapists in India bought out by Gaysi Family.
Amrutam is an Ayurvedic wellness community that also has a list of LGBTQIA+ therapists.
Donate to the community
The Chennai-based HIV relief organisation, Saathi, has options to donate here. You can also write in to them to ask about their work.
Queer Quote of the Week:
what’s really happening is that their transphobia is upset af to see us thriving while not conforming, to see the impotence of their realities in which entities like us are supposed to be dead or miserable, to know that what they despise is still flourishing in a life they envy... i will keep worldbending a reality that is better than this trash world until my flesh gives up, and even then the work will not stop because stories last forever.
- akwaeke emezi, writer, they/them
Thank you for reading, and see you for our next letter!
Send in tips and stay in touch: queeringabout@gmail.com.
Cross-dressing Pharaohs, Trans Politicians and Gay Poets
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