Hello!
We are two queer journalists from India.
For months now, we have been wishing for a one-stop guide to queer news, from India in particular and the world in general.
We wanted to find a comprehensive guide to LGBTQIA+ news, culture, icons and resources, all neatly itemised, summarised and in one place. And we wanted it regularly, arriving every week in an accessible format.
So we thought- why not start our very own newsletter! Here we can write about all the stuff that matters to us each week, that we want veteran community members, newbies and allies to know, and mainstream media to talk about.
We can share our opinions, examine current affairs through a queer lens and shine a general spotlight on all that affects the queer community - from policy to pop culture - in our day to day life.
This is Issue One: the one in which we say hi to you, and thank you for being with us as we begin this journey in the most unusual Pride month of our lives. We’d love for you to stay and read all that we have to offer each week!
We’re conscious that we’re launching this newsletter in the middle of a pandemic, and that lakhs of members of the community are struggling, on a financial and mental health basis, to deal with the effects of these times.
We’d also love to hear from you! Have any tips about news we should cover? Know some great shows, documentaries, plays, movies, books or albums you think we should mention? Drop us a line!
We hope to make Queering About everything we wished was already there in our lives, and yours. Thank you for reading, and see you for our next letter!
Signing off,
Queering About.
And now, the news.
Let’s get to the big stuff that made headlines this week in India and around the world:
The Uttarakhand High Court has ruled that same-sex couples can live together, and don’t have to be married to do so (because, you know, that’s still not recognised by the law). “It is a fundamental right which is guaranteed to a person under article 21 of the Constitution of India, which is wide enough to protect an inherent right of self-determination with regards to one’s identity and freedom of choice with regards to the sexual orientation of choice of the partner”, the court said as per Hindustan Times.
The publication Mint Lounge decided to run a truly awful opinion piece on She Who Shall Not Be Named’s anti-transpeople manifesto and got rightfully dragged on social media. We won’t link to it because it does not deserve clicks. It does, however, deserve all the criticism it gets including this perfect response on Twitter.
The Polish President, Andrzej Duda, has called the promotion of LGBT rights an “ideology” worse than that of communism. His campaign seems to be largely focused on anti-LGBT ideology. This is a serious accusation because Poland saw an anti-communist solidarity movement in support of democracy in the 1980s which had mass support. Many Poles believe that communism was a foreign ideology imposed on them by the Soviet Union. The European Union has reminded Poland of its duty to be non-discriminatory, as a core EU value, but it seems to have fallen on deaf ears.
Following the murders of two trans women, New York City saw a 15,000 strong march for Brooklyn Liberation on the 14th of June. It was one of the biggest marches for Black trans lives ever, being an amalgamation of Pride, the global uprising against racism and a call to respect and protect black lives, and demanding justice for the victims of anti-Black and anti-trans violence. The images and videos emerging from the march were so powerful it made us cry, y’all.
The US Supreme Court labelled discrimination against LGBT individuals illegal under the Civil Rights Act (1964) which forbids employers from discriminating against employees based on sex as well as gender, race, colour, national origin and religion. This comes after Trump had rolled back the Obama-era non-discriminatory healthcare protection law for transgender people in the US. The rollback was proposed by Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) which stated that the workplace was different when it came to healthcare because "the binary biological character of sex (which is ultimately grounded in genetics) takes on special importance in the health context." Sure, Jan.
A study published last Monday in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine shows that 91 percent of adolescents (13-17 yrs) were the target of at least one instance of bullying concerning their gender or sexual identities. Additionally, 73 percent of them were bullied for things other than their identity, such as disability, race, religion, etc. BUT gay-straight alliances in school were shown to reduce bullying significantly. Well done, kiddos! You can read the study here in detail. We need more studies like this in India and we hope that schools in India take a cue from this and establish their own allyship networks (one can dream).
Some positive pandemic news: to help ease anxieties related to gender dysphoria for the trans and enby community during the COVID-19 lockdowns, a group called the Trans Clippers Project has been founded in the US. Klie Kliebert created the group after reading a request for help on Facebook. They obtained clippers and went on to distribute them around the country. So far, they’ve distributed over 200 clippers, along with a mirror, hairbrush, and face mask. We love this idea.
And to end on some GREAT news, remember Raven-Symoné from That’s So Raven? She just got married to her boo! The actress came out as lesbian years and years ago. The IG picture has us weeping.
What We’re Into:
The events we’re attending, the books and articles we’re reading, the films and shows we’re watching and the music we’re listening to.
All the online Pride events that many, many, many queer organisations and community leaders are doing on Zoom, IG Live, Facebook Live and other group-video platforms. This includes The Queer Muslim Project, Nazariya, Naz Foundation, Humsafar Trust and more. There are talks, live performances and even people just chatting. Check out the IG, Twitter and Facebook pages of the organisations (we linked a couple for you) for a detailed list. A few are also mentioned here.
This online museum of queer love stories set up by Gaysi Family and Tinder. Rainbow capitalism is insidious, and companies only support queer communities when they can profit off it rather than have it as an enshrined value, but queer love is beautiful and we don't get to see enough of it… See our dilemma?
This article about post-377 queer culture in India, by Saikat Majumdar.
These very cool online exhibitions, organised by LGBTQIA+ societies all over the world for Pride Month. We would particularly recommend this one of Pakistan-born queer artist Salman Toor.
This collection of photos showing LGBTQIA+ history, released by Getty Images. Enjoy this heart-warming collection of celebration and resistance here.
And this lovely article about black queer joy, as curated by actress Dalila Ali Rajah on her IG page.
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 news media.
Sarah Hegazi
On June 14th, Sarah Hegazy, a 30-year-old Egyptian gay rights activist died by suicide while in exile in Canada. In 2017, she was among the 22 people arrested as part of a crackdown on gays in Cairo, Egypt. As per the Human Rights Watch report, Hegazy told her lawyers that police officers in Cairo allowed fellow detainees to beat and sexually harass her.
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.
Queer Quote of the Week:
I will not have my life narrowed down. I will not bow down to somebody else's whim or to someone else's ignorance.
Alice Walker (author of The Color Purple, and the first African American author to win the Pulitzer).
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Stay in touch: queeringabout@gmail.com. We’re also on Twitter!
Excited to see what else y'all come up with! Thank you for creating this!
What a fantastic start! Excited to see what's coming, and the very best of luck! Love & Light! 🌈