Indian Matchmaking, Conversion Therapy, and the Draft Transgender Act
It's the fifth edition of Queering About.
Intro
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.
We’ll start by saying sorry for shifting around the days on which we deliver this letter to your inbox. We’re still working on finding our rhythm, especially since one of us is in Kolkata and the other in Bengaluru.
BUT, on the bright side, we’ve been doing this for a full month now! We’ve had so much fun bringing together the best - and sometimes the worst - of queer news from across the globe for you. We’ve watched a ton of new shows and Youtubers, seen many a picture gallery, listened to a couple of podcasts and read loads of wonderful books and articles - and we hope you’ve enjoyed them, too. And the best part is that there’s always more to come.
On to this week’s stories, then…
And now, the news.
Lots of conversations around the reality show Indian Matchmaking, and most of them focused on casteism, colourism, sexism and classism, and almost exclusively equating ‘Indian’ with ‘Hindu.’ We bit the bullet so YOU DON’T HAVE TO and watched it, and we’d like to add ‘extremely triggering for a non-cis person’ to the list. Having been out for a while, we’d forgotten how imprisoning heteronormativity can be and this took us right back to that mindset of hating ourselves because we didn’t fit in. The emotional response was almost as strong as a flashback. 0/10, would not recommend.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has asked officials in Mohali to look into the protection of a lesbian couple who have been receiving death threats from their family. The court said that “the legitimacy of their relationship with each other is of no consequence when it comes to their right to life and liberty.” It really is the bare minimum but it feels like a small victory.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has demanded an allocation to meet basic survival needs of food, shelter, employment and emergency medical care for HIV-affected people from governments and relief agencies like the United Nations. More than 10,000 people from 23 organisations have signed the petition to help sex workers, trans people, gay and bisexual men and drug users.
Here’s some important news we missed out last week: there’s only about three weeks left to give your suggestions for the draft rules of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2020. Members of the community, legal allies, and activists have said that despite apparent benefits, there is still no reservation given to trans people, and the bill negates self-determination and self-recognition, continuing to rely on medical interventions to grant identities. If you want more info, skip to our What We’re Into section.
Here’s an example of the difficulties that some people from the community in Delhi are going through. Here’s an insightful article, filled with names of local resources you could refer to, about how trans people from various backgrounds in Manipur are coping with the pandemic. Here’s a story from Mumbai about an NGO that is helping trans people access basic rations. And here’s a sensitively-written article about how trans people in Odisha are coping, again with names of organisations that one can look up for volunteering or donations, if you’re able and if they’re accepting.
And finally, some cheering news about a transwoman who beat the hell out of COVID! Now, who’s going to tell editors and reporters to stop calling transgender people ‘transgenders’? What if we call y’all cis genders and leave it at that, hmm?
Netflix has axed a Turkish drama called If Only, after the government denied it a filming licence over featuring a gay character. There’s been a rise in anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric in Turkey. The head of the state's religious affairs department, Ali Erbas, said that “homosexuality caused disease and corruption,” and President Erdogan agreed.
Sort-of good news from Sudan: the country has removed the death penalty for homosexuality. It’s also banned female genital mutilation. Same-sex relations remain criminalised, however, and punishable with imprisonment for seven years.
Would you like to know more about a gay black athlete from Jamaica, who might be competing in the Olympics next year? Swimmer Michael Gunning used to represent Great Britain but switched to his other home nation of Jamaica after being caught up in the Manchester City Arena bombing three years ago. What a boss.
Data from a new government study in the UK shows that trans people are twice as likely to be victims of crime in England and Wales. It also found that heterosexual people are less likely to have experienced a crime (14%) than those who identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual (21%).
On the bright side, a whopping 62% of people in a nationwide survey in the UK want gay conversion therapy to be banned. This included 57% of those who said they were affiliated with a religion. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has now said that he’ll go ahead with the ban after conducting yet another study on the issue.
A town in the Netherlands has cut ties with a twin city in Poland after the Polish city declared itself as an official “gay-free zone”. They then covered up the name of the Polish town on street signs with rainbow stickers. This comes after Andrzej Duda, incumbent president, vowed during his election campaign to “defend children from LGBT ideology”.
Austria’s issued its first intersex birth certificate. 43-year-old Alex Juergen, the intersex person who received it, said that they are “very happy that the law and the government have finally recognised” their identity. Juergen does not identify as either male or female.
Only 18% of major Hollywood studio films had non-heterosexual characters in 2019, and there were no trans characters at all for the third year in a row, according to a report by media-monitoring organisation GLAAD. Of the 118 films released by the major Hollywood studios in 2019, just 22 had LGBTQ characters. It’s strange how queer people don’t seem to exist in everyday life in mainstream entertainment unless the product is explicitly queer-focused.
In the US, a group of Democrat lawmakers have sued the Trump administration to stop the rule that could day away with protections against discrimination for trans people in healthcare. It comes at a time when the country’s department of housing proposed a new rule that would give homeless shelters the right to admit people on the basis of their biological sex, not their gender. It’s a rule that could require transgender women to stay in men’s shelters and thus put their lives in danger.
In good news, though, an advocacy group said the number of LGBT+ elected officials in U.S. has hit an all-time high in the US. There are now more than 800 LGBT+ identifying people in office in the country. And Colorado became the 11th US state to ban the ‘gay and trans panic’ defence, which would allow people to get away with assaulting or murdering gay or trans individuals.
And Madonna said she had been fined in Russia for a speech supporting LGBTQIA+ rights that she delivered at a concert there in 2012 —but that she didn’t pay! Honestly a queen.
What We’re Into:
📣 The Center for Law and Policy Research has an open consultation meeting on this Saturday, the 25th of July, to discuss the draft of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules 2020 by Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. You can log on through the details on their Insta.
📣 Another queer newsletter! Check out Veer Misra’s queer essays newsletter below.
📷 This adorable little zine about how to support your fave queer artists through a pandemic.
📷 You can now view this AIDS memorial quilt. It has 48,000 panels, weighs 54 tonnes and spans 1.2 million square feet, and commemorates those who died in the US of the pandemic. Here’s a bit about its history.
📷 This short Insta thread about the white gaze on the hijra identity in India.
🎧 This podcast that tells you about the police attack on Stonewall, a gay bar in New York City, that started modern-day Pride in the West.
🎥 Many of you have probably already watched it, but one of us just had Netflix drama Pose recommended to them by their therapist. Looking forward to listening to the podcast that the show’s creator is making about the history of LGBTQIA+ activism, too.
🎥 This well-thought-out, respectful and articulate video that will help you counter Rowling’s attack on human rights for transwomen AND transmen in any ‘debate.’
♫ The many videos and songs by young, queer, indie musicians in this Scroll article.
📖 This history of conversion therapy in India.
📖 This long but beautifully written piece on mental health, gender identity, national borders and the categories we imprison ourselves within as human beings.
📖 This personal essay about how a trans man redefined masculinity on his own terms, despite having very few models for it.
📖 This article about Singapore’s strange relationship with Netflix’s queer characters.
📖 And this first-hand account of the experience of one of the first male gay couples in Germany to adopt a child. It’s very illuminating re: heteronormativity & gender roles.
Rest in Power
This is in memory of those who lost their lives to hate, and also dedicated to those whose passing goes unreported.
Marilyn Monroe Cazares, a 22-year-old transgender woman living on the streets, was found dead in California on the 13th of July. Her death is being investigated as a homicide, and her family says that she had been stabbed and burnt.
Two suspects have been charged with first-degree murder and a third with auto theft in connection with the death of Jose I. Escobar Menendez, a gay man from Virginia.
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 Humsafar Trust, one of India’s oldest queer NGOs, has a COVID-19 fundraiser. You can donate here.
Queer Quote of the Week:
“It is revolutionary for any trans person to choose to be seen and visible in a world that tells us we should not exist.”
Laverne Cox, transgender woman, actress and LGBTQIA+ advocate.
Thank you for reading, and see you for our next letter!
Send in tips and stay in touch: queeringabout@gmail.com.