We’re sorry we disappeared for so long. Our lives and jobs consumed us - one of us crashed and burned at a job they’d sunk their dreams into and the other is feeling like they’re slowly being crushed like olives in an oil press in their personal life. It do be like that sometimes.
We both took a valuable lesson from our respective situations, though - which is that we need and want to focus on what’s important. And we realised very quickly that what we were doing through Queering About - covering queer news, helping people to access identity-affirming media and forming a community - was very, very important to us.
So we’re back, and this time we’re hoping to stick around for a long time. Queering About was a passion project for both of us at a very difficult time in our lives - a true labour of love. We hope it continues to bring you as much joy as it brings us.
In Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly, a family filed a police complaint against another family for ‘kidnapping’ their daughter in what they claimed was a case of forcible marriage to a different community (we refuse to use the disgusting phrase used in the article). The daughter, however, said that she had eloped with her long-time girlfriend, and that they were waiting for the Supreme Court’s verdict on marriage equality. We hope they’re safe.
Karnataka has introduced free bus travel for all women from June 11 - including transwomen. It’s an attempt to make public transport accessible for everybody. Prominent members of the trans community have said that the strength of the policy will depend on how well it’s implemented.
In Manipur’s Imphal, some members of the transgender community have staged a protest against ongoing conflict. They have condemned the internet shutdown in the state and the intervention of central forces.
Meanwhile in Odisha’s Bhubaneswar, civic authorities have enlisted a transgender community self-help group called Swikruti to handle some of the city’s waste management vehicles. The group will hire - presumably from within the community - a driver and two helpers, who will be paid minimum wage and trained by the civic body. Some community leaders have said it’s to help members of the community become economically independent.
Kolkata’s Jadavpur University has established a gender-neutral toilet for LGBTQIA+ students in its English Department. While this is good news, one of your writers, who was a student in the very same department, hopes that it's cleaner than the truly nightmarish toilets that existed there beforehand. 🤢
In Rajasthan’s high court, justice Anoop Kumar Dhand ordered authorities to consider modifying the service record of a person who had undergone gender reassignment surgery to reflect their true gender, highlighting the right to living with dignity as oneself.
This comes at a time where the Congress-ruled state of Rajasthan signalled its opposition to marriage equality, and is due to hold elections this year. However, earlier this month, the Congress party tweeted in support of LGBTQIA+ rights.
Miss Universe Philippines Michelle Dee has said that she is bisexual after photographs of her were non-consensually spread around on social media. We’re shocked at how few of the stories focused on the fact that she was partly pressured into coming out.
In Japan, a gay couple demanded the government pay them a million yen each in compensation for the unequal treatment they face because same-sex marriage isn’t legal yet. While the demand wasn’t upheld, the district court did rule that the government's policy against same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.
Over in Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan won the presidential elections. He’s been vocal about his anti-LGBTQ views, while his opponent, Kemal Kilicdaroglu has been relatively more supportive. Either way, our thoughts go out to our sibs in Anatolia.
Across the pond, British Cycling has banned trans women from competing in the ‘female’ category. Only pre-hormone therapy trans men and cis women can now compete in it. There is now an ‘open’ category in which transgender women and non-binary athletes can compete, as well as cis men.
And finally, the LGBT Veterans Independent Review has been carried out by Lord Etherton (the first openly gay British judge) to look into the impact of the “gay ban” on military personnel in the UK. A leaked version of the report speaks about the horrific treatment queers faced: things like electroshock treatment along with unwarranted surveillance and blackmail.
What We’re Into 📣🎧 🎥🎵📚📖 📷
📣 The inaugural edition of the Rainbow Awards for Literature and Journalism is now accepting entries, up to July 18, 2023. Find out more here.
📣 Here’s a short list of Pride Month events in various Indian cities - we hope it leads you to more and more events in your own hometown. And…
📣 … here’s what to expect from one of the most prominent events - the Kashish queer film festival in Mumbai, including Onir’s new movie, Pine Cone.
🎵Janelle Monae dropped a new song a while ago, and it’s a lovely little tune for a summer playlist. The video has caused much gay panic amongst many and we, too, are … looking… respectfully … 👀🍑
📷 This slideshow does a good job of tracing the fight for queer rights in India from the 1990s onwards.
🎥 Starting our To Watch recs with drag queens Trixie Mattel and Katya. We’re late to the party, but we’ve only just discovered that they have their own show on the Still Watching Netflix YouTube channel, called ‘I Like to Watch.’ It’s hilarious and filled with incisive commentary and a great way to watch Netflix shows without actually watching Netflix shows.
🎥 More Youtube content, and unusually for us, we’re recommending a workout channel this time. The Fitness Marshall has helped one of the writers of this newsletter find peace and joy in bodily movement again. Our current fave is the routine to Sam Smith’s Unholy.
🎥 If you’re also looking for some niche and classic queer movies to binge on during Pride month, the Criterion Collection has a list out:
Definitely DON’T torrent or stream these movies. We DISAPPROVE of piracy. 😉(Also, heads up - Paris is Burning is on YouTube!)
🎥 We’re recommending this great miniseries, Dead Ringers (yes, based off of the ’88 David Cronenberg film), starring queer icon Rachel Weisz, with a warning: it’s definitely not for the faint-hearted.
🎥 On a lighter note, here’s an informative watch, highlighting the significance of the Transgender Employment Mela held in Delhi earlier this month. If you’d like to know more, here’s a nice read, too.
📖 One of our favourite newsletters this year has been The Queerest Year. The “two GenX post-binary dykes” behind it have decided to take in submissions from ONLY queer art, media, and voices for a year, leading to some great recommendations and food for thought.
📖 Funny, dramatic. and touching - we loved this account of how Californian LGBTQ+ groups rallied to get American baseball team the Los Angeles Dodgers to invite drag artists the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence back to their team’s annual Pride Night celebrations. It’s after an outpouring of outrage in May, when they disinvited the Sisters and withdrew a community award they planned to give to them due to to pressure from right-wing groups.
🎙️If you want to give your HR people ideas on how to make your workplace truly inclusive, here’s a good listen - Sahil Patel, a trans man who works as a consultant for PeriFerry, highlights daily workplace struggles for queer people and the policies that need to change.
📚 Niyogi Books is unveiling Entering the Maze: The Queer Fiction of Krishnagopal Mallick, in June translated by Niladri R. Chatterjee, bringing to the English world “hidden gems of Bengali queer literature.”
📚This Arab is Queer: An Anthology of 18 Queer Arab Writers, published by Saqi Books, is an exploration of being queer and Arab. Here’s a passage from the book that made us weep:
This is in memory of those who lost their lives to hate, and also dedicated to those whose passing go unreported by the media.
We lost Praveen Nath, a trans man who won the title of Mr Kerala in 2021 and was a finalist at the 2022 National Bodybuilding competition in Mumbai, earlier this May. He was also the advocacy coordinator of Thrissur-based LGBTQIA+ organisation Sahayathrika.
Dr. R Bindu, Kerala's Minister of Higher Education and Social Justice wrote this heart-felt thread in honour of Praveen and the cyberbullying and transphobia he faced.
The Beijing LGBT Center, a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving the day-to-day livelihood of queer people in China, shut shop in May citing "forces beyond control.” Founded in 2008, media speculation opines that a government crackdown was behind the abrupt closure.
Mental Health Resources
Sahaya Help Line: 080-223 0959
Operates: Only on Tuesdays and Fridays, 7 pm - 9 pm
A list of other places to call if you need help, clarity, or just someone to talk to.
Need a mentor in the workplace? Try Qonnect, a career development peer network. They hold mentorship programmes and fireside chats to help you find out how to be a functioning queer human at work.
Donate to the community
Here’s a fundraiser to help keep a trans community organisation in Mumbai running. The Garima Greh was set up by the Transgernder Welfare Equity & Empowerment Trust, along with the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE) and the National Institute of Social Defence (NISD) to safeguard the rights of trans people and protect the interests of the community during the covid-19 pandemic.
Here’s something that highlights the work that they do: a Garima Griha in Patna trained trans people and helped set up a beauty parlour. Later on, laser machines and training was provided regarding laser treatments, providing a safe space to receive gender-affirming care.
The grehs were due to receive 40% funding from the government at the initial stage, which they received only for one year, after which there has been little-to-no government support. Here is a piece highlighting their plight.
Queer Quote of the Week
“No Pride For Some of Us Without Liberation For All of Us.”
— Micah Bazant, artist, in their portrait of drag queen and queer activist Marsha P Johnson.
Thank you for reading, and see you for our next letter!
Send in tips and stay in touch: queeringabout@gmail.com
Informative and concise
Incredibly helpful!