Queering Quantum Physics, Maternity Medicine, and the Indian Armed Forces
It's our third newsletter.
Welcome to this v queer newsletter!
We’re two queer journalists curating and writing about all things LGBTQIA+ that happened in the past week, from India and beyond.
The first week of July has been rough, hasn’t it? Covid-19 cases are exploding all across India, lots of newsrooms have been continuing with brutal job cuts (check out this regularly updated list by Cyril Sam, which neatly explains what’s going on), the locusts returned to Delhi — phew! This adaptation of the apocalypse is way too close to the book. 0/10 stars.
In the meantime, this newsletter is a day late because both of your writers had to take some time off as our mental health took a serious nose-dive. Everything just gets too heavy sometimes, ya know?
But we’re here and we’re trucking on. And hopefully, some of the more cheering news here and the lovely list of things to watch / visit / read at the end, will help lift your mood as much as they lifted ours!
On to everything else...
And now, the news.
Let’s get to the big stuff that made headlines this week in India and around the world:
A retired major of the Indian Army, Major J Suresh, reflected on his coming out journey after General Bipin Rawat's homophobic statements around gay people in the Army. In his blog post, he says, “… as a Young Officer in the army, I felt no romantic attraction towards or love for anyone [...] However, by my late twenties, after months of drinking and wondering & questioning why I was different and crying myself to sleep over it, I finally came to terms with myself and accepted myself for who I was.” Whatever our feelings about the army as an institution — what a powerful statement.
In Gujarat, Zoya Khan has become the first transgender operator of the Common Service Centre in India. She’s working in the Vadodara district. The Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad shared this news through a tweet. More power to you, Zoya!
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Border Security Force (BSF) have responded positively to having transgender recruits. CRPF said that “we fully value the spirit of the order of the Hon'ble Supreme Court... In view of impending policy guidelines of MHA, we shall make it further compatible as per the need.” The move could result in jobs with pension schemes for many disadvantaged trans people.
Logically.co.uk published a two-part piece on “pinkwashing” in Kashmir. The second piece is packed with data about how word spread about the “Pride in Lal Chowk” event, arranged by an organisation that calls itself Pride Kashmir. TL;DR: the hashtag and event seem to have been created by a select few who have other agendas in mind - like comparing the displaced Kashmiri Pandits to queer persons in India on World Refugee Day.
Further out in Asia, 9 percent of Indonesians had positive reactions to homosexuality as being acceptable in society, a significant increase from only 3 percent in 2013. Baby steps!
Taiwan was one of the only countries in the world that could hold a pride march this year. It’s only five known COVID cases, all of whom are in quarantine, so a full-fledged pride to be held. We’re so glad that at least someone gets to experience the Pride March ;_; <3
On the other hand, police arrested at least 20 people who were protesting the Anti-Terrorism Act at an LGBT Pride event in The Philippines. The police offered no explanation, only saying that their actions were unlawful. There were no allegations of violence. The protesters were later charged under the Law on Reporting of Communicable Diseases (2019) and the Public Assembly Act (1985). The Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 would allow protestors to be arrested without a court warrant and detained without charge for up to 24 days.
Singapore is going to have its elections on July 10, yet there seems to be no talk on the importance of the city-state's LGBTQ+ community and its allies and the removal of Section 377A of the penal code.
Moving on to Europe, advocates of Lithuania’s LGBT community staged a rally in front of the President’s office on Friday. In May 2019, Nauseda said that he would wear a rainbow badge to show his “solidarity against brutal lack of understanding” re: the queer community in the country. After being elected, he didn’t do so - hence, the rally. We appreciate holding power to accountability!
France also saw an informal Pride march, though a much smaller one than usual, after the official event was cancelled. Close to 3,000 people turned out on Saturday in Paris.
Russian President Vladimir Putin mocked the U.S. embassy in Moscow for flying a rainbow flag on the day of Pride (while also making slightly wacky statements on how it reflected the sexual orientation of its staff.) Muscovites had their own own experience of Pride with people taking celebratory photos in front of the flag. Sadly, Putin’s comments were followed by a nationwide vote on constitutional reforms that also had an amendment pushing the definition of marriage into a neat little box called heteronormativity: a union between a man and a woman.
Thousands of people gathered in London’s Parliament Square on the 4th of July to protest the government’s alleged abandonment of reforms to the Gender Recognition Act. Reforms are being scrapped from the Act, and will introduce policies to protect single-sex spaces. The UK House of Commons also recently took out a poll on Twitter asking for people’s opinions on conversion therapy. We know, we know.
Nearly one in four gay and trans Brazilians have lost their job due to the COVID outbreak, a survey from advocacy group #VoteLGBT found. 4 in 10 LGBT+ people, and more than half of transgender people, said they would not be able to survive without income for more than a month. The LGBT+ community also reported an unemployment rate of 21.6 percent - much higher than the national average.
Rainbow Doula DC was founded by Kelsey Carroll, and is the only doula collective in the Washington DC area that caters only to the queer community. (A doula is a professional trained in childbirth who provides emotional, physical, and educational support to a person who is expecting, is in labour, or has given birth.) Kelsey said that she was wanted to support those who experience birth differently from cis-women. The collective has since helped “lesbian, gay, trans, non-binary, queer, and all folks”, and support “single, monogamous, and polyamorous people.” WOOT.
What we’re into
This EXCELLENT clip of drag performer & writer Amrou Al-Kadhi aka @Glamrou on Instagram, on how they understand queerness through quantum physics.
These lively photos of Vietnamese stage performers from the LGBT+ community.
This exhibition of hand-written testimonials, called The Red Wall Project, in which trans people, non-binary people and gender diverse people tell their tales of experiencing sexual violence. We found out about it through live-streams on the social media of Kalki Subramaniam, the founder of Sahodari Foundation, who organised it.
This lovely article about Indian queer inspirations in adulthood and childhood. We cried ;_;
Talking of Kashmir, here’s a great article in Feminism in India about the challenges of being queer in the Valley.
This super informative post on 15 arguments made in bad faith against puberty blockers. You could read it for ammo on firing back at transphobes in your life, or for educational purposes.
These featured stories of LGBTQIA+ changemakers under the tag Matter of Pride. There are other stories under that tag that aren’t LGBTQIA+, though. Bit confusing, but the series itself is pretty cool.
And this eye-opening article by a trans woman dissecting J K Rowling’s transphobia. It’s logical, well- constructed and contextualises Rowling’s ideas within the UK far-right.
Rest in Power
Black American trans women Bree Black, Draya McCarty and Shaki Peters were all found dead in the last week. Bree is the 21st trans person killed in the US this year. Darya and Shaki were both killed in Louisiana, and Louisiana Trans Advocates are calling for the police to release more details about their investigation.
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.
Donate to the community
Here’s a list of charities, with links to fundraisers, that are working to help queer people in India affected by COVID. It’s curated by PinkList India.
Queer Quote of the Week
I am not here to entertain straight people.
Sarah Schulman, an American novelist, playwright, nonfiction writer, screenwriter, gay activist, and AIDS historian.
Thank you for reading, and see you for our next letter!
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