#YesHomoVivah, Women's Rugby, And The Haunting of Bly Manor
It's the eighth edition of Queering About!
Happy Thursday!
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.
In AWESOME news - we’re both back this time! We’re recovered and healthy, if somewhat stressed about the covid situation in India, and, indeed, the world.
This past week, though, many queer milestones were celebrated! It was International Lesbians’ Day, and National Coming Out Day in the US. We’re thinking of all the queers in our lives living out and proud, and wishing them joy and safety. We’re also thinking of all the queers who are still finding themselves - and wishing them the very best on their journey, at whichever point they may be.
So here’s a cute video of singer Troye Sivan, one of our favourite queers, dancing in honour of all of us.
On to this week’s stories, then…
And now, the news.
#InDepth: There are multiple petitions pending in the Delhi High Court about the legalisation of gay marriage.
We start with a topic that is trending in India as we write this newsletter- #YesHomoVivah. What seem to mostly be fan accounts of… One Direction stans?? Are trending this topic globally (bless them). It was started in anticipation of a Delhi High Court hearing yesterday on two petitions to legalise gay marriage. The petitioners are represented by, among others, lawyers (and real-life couple) Menaka Guruswamy and Arundhati Katju, who were also two of the forerunners in decriminalising Section 377.
One was filed by a lesbian couple, Kavita Arora and Ankita Khanna, to amend the Special Marriages Act (1954) to recognise same-sex unions. They say that the lack of formal acceptance of their marriage under Indian laws was a violation of their constitutional rights.
The second was filed by Vaibhav Jain, an Indian citizen, and Parag Vijay Mehta, an overseas citizen of India. The two got married in the United States in 2017, but an Indian consulate refused to register their marriage this year. They are also seeking legal recognition of their marriage, but under the Foreign Marriage Act (1969). They pointed out that they cannot see their families under the current pandemic restrictions, which only allow people whose spouses have been recognised in marriage to travel to India.
The Delhi High Court gave the government until January 8th to respond to the petitioners. One response has already been filed, in which the government said that ‘such a situation has not arisen in five thousand years of sanatan dharma.’
There are layers to unpack in this response - the two most obvious being that simply because it has not been brought to legal attention before, in the seventy odd years that the nation-state of India has existed, does not mean that it was not an issue; and that sanatan dharma is not equivalent to Indian law, which, so far, is secular.
The court in its turn replied to the Centre, “We may shed our inhibition. The laws are gender-neutral. You please try to interpret the law for the citizens of Sanatan Dharma in the country. This is not an adversarial litigation. This is for the right of every citizen of the country.”
The two petitions come as the proposal to add same-sex unions under the Hindu Marriage Act (1955) is still being processed in the same court, and the next hearing for that is next week.
In yet more gay marriage news, the wedding of a groom in the US wearing traditional attire to marry his husband has angered a Karnataka community. It’s after Sharath Ponnappa, a California-based doctor from the Kodava community, married his partner Sandeep Dosanj, a North Indian settled in the US. A spokesperson even said that the community would expel and ostracize Ponnappa for this “blasphemous” act because they’re “against” gay marriage. Really puts the uphill battle the legal petitioners have into perspective, huh.
In other news, Dan Levy, the creator of everyone’s favourite show Schitt's Creek, has slammed Comedy Central India for censoring a male same-sex kiss from the show. It’s genuinely a strange move, given that we’ve been watching a LOT of gay stuff on Indian streaming platforms recently and nothing has been censored as far as we’re aware. Also, some viewers said that a kiss between two women in the same episode was not censored.
#Indepth: Laxmmi Bomb and trans representation in Bollywood
Akshay Kumar’s new film horror comedy film Laxmmi Bomb’s trailer is out. The story, which is a remake of a Tamil movie, is about the vengeful ghost of a trans woman that possesses a man. Trans woman and rights activist Laxmi Narayan Tripathi has praised the trailer, calling it “explosive,” but many others have said it stereotypes behaviours and ignores the biases faced by the community.
We can know the full story only once we watch the whole film. But it must be noted there is hardly any authentic representation of trans women in Bollywood anyway, and even when communities such as the hijra community is depicted, it’s hardly ever in a positive light. Also, introducing trans narratives into mainstream media by putting cis men in dresses instead of hiring actual trans women actors will only further push the idea that trans women are not really women.
Meanwhile, a transwoman constable, Samyuktha, tried to end her life due to “mental anguish” in Tamil Nadu. However, she was rushed to the hospital and saved just in time. No more details have been mentioned so far. And in Bihar, Monika Das has become the first trans woman presiding poll officer for the state’s upcoming assembly elections.
Some uplifting news now. What could be the first ever Indian mountaineering team consisting largely of trans people is on their way to climbing Mount Friendship in Himachal Pradesh. They’ve been trained by team leader Ratnesh Pandey, who’s climbed Mount Everest before!
And finally, Saurav Kittu Tank, a transperson from Madhya Pradesh, has become the first transperson to climb the high Virgin Peak in Spiti Valley, Himachal Pradesh. He is also India's first transperson to have participated in the Permit Mountain Expedition by the Indian Mounting Federation! He was congratulated by Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju for the feat.
We’re back at it again with our studies from the US, but many of them are really illuminating. One report from there, that quotes many different studies, says that discrimination and bias has had a major impact on heart health of queer people. It’s down to many reasons; for example, queer people are less likely to visit the doctor due to previous experiences of discrimination, and there is very little LGBTQIA+ focused research on the area that isn’t about upper-class white gay men.
Next to Hungary. The nationalist government there has called a book of modern fairy tales for children “homosexual propaganda,” and said it should be banned. The book was published by a lesbian group and it’s called “Wonderland Is For Everyone.” Official intolerance of LGBT+ people has been increasing in the country.
Major news from the UK. The BBC reports that the country has seen a huge increase in the the number of reported homophobic hate crimes - the rate has nearly trebled in the last five years. LGBT+ charities said they have noticed a significant uptick, and that this could be just the "tip of the iceberg".
#InDepth: A great deal of news about trans people from the UK - and most of it, we’re afraid to say, is bad.
Firstly, trans students and allies in the University of Oxford have signed a letter asking Professors Selina Todd and Senia Paseta to “publicly commit to including trans women in their research”. It’s after they were chosen to lead the university’s new women’s rights programme. Todd describes herself as a “gender critical feminist” - a term used by (mostly Western) feminists who think that sex should be the axis of feminist politics, rather than gender, and thus consider trans women’s rights as antithetical to their own. A reminder that the UK government has dropped a plan to allow trans people to self-identify as their preferred gender.
Meanwhile, the global governing body for rugby, which is headquartered in Dublin, has announced that trans women will not be allowed to play in international women’s contact rugby. They said that ‘physical benefits’ make trans women ineligible. But trans men can still compete in men’s contact rugby. National unions still have the flexibility to allow trans women to compete at the community level, though - and England’s Rugby Football Union has said that they can continue to play at all levels. They said more evidence is needed to consider a ban.
And in much better news, Time Magazine has released its 2020 list of Next Generation Leaders and one of them is British trans model Munroe Bergdorf. Incidentally, Indian badminton player and disability rights activist Manasi Joshi is also on it!
What We’re Into: 📣🎧 🎥🎵📚📖
📣 The National Centre for Biological Sciences is holding a talk: Remembering Queer Lives: Silence, memory and building a collective history. This presentation wants to create collective memories of queer histories as a resource for the future. It’s being held TOMORROW (October 16th) at 4pm IST, so make sure you register before the talks begin!
📣 Transmen Collective held a talk recently on how to get your documents changed if one wishes to transition in India. They say that the recording of the talk would be available soon, so watch their space. Their website also has a lot of info on being a transman and resources like how to use a binder and more.
🎧 In desperate need of LGBTQ+ podcasts? The Insta handle @thisislgbthistory gotchu. This post lists 7 queer podcasts they love, and there’s also quite a few suggestions in the comments.
🎥 The movie Saving Chintu - here’s the trailer. It’s a film by Tushar Tyagi, an LA-based director, and it tells the story of an Indian-American gay couple that comes to India to adopt a child, who is HIV postive.
🎥 The Haunting of Bly Manor. It’s Netflix's new horror show, inspired by Henry James’s novel The Turn of the Screw. Why are we recommending it in a queer watchlist, you ask? YOU WILL SOON FIND OUT. It’s a very heartwarming watch, trust us.
🎥 We’ve finally started watching the show Pose - and binged the entire first season in three days. IT’S SO GOOD. IT’S SO WHOLESOME (SO FAR). PLEASE WATCH IT (if you haven’t already). Here’s a video of one of the black trans women actors from the show, Angelica Ross, talking about her journey of self-discovery.
🎥 Chutney Popcorn, a dyke-romance-comedy. It has a South Asian lead and it’s directed by Nisha Ganatra, a lesbian director, who won a Golden Globe for her work on the series Transparent. We found out about it from the online queer women’s magazine Autostraddle!
🎥 Former Youtuber and our baby boy Daniel Howell, aka danisnotonfire, is back with a BOOK and a video for Attitude Magazine about how to get over social media addiction, a year after coming out!
We’ve got also some helpful guides for you today!
📖 This guide to what is transphobia, how to spot it and how to fight it.
📖 It was World Mental Health Day last week. If you’ve ever struggled with suicidal ideation, you’re not alone. This piece talks about how to deal with these thoughts in a calm and forgiving way.
📖 It was also Coming Out Day, so here’s a suuuper helpful and very sensible list of the things you should consider before you come out, and the best way to do it while keeping your safety in mind. Remember - just because you aren’t out, that doesn’t invalidate your queerness, experience, or existence!
📖 / ♫ This heartbreaking profile of pop icon and queer God, Prince - Prince Was One of the Loneliest Souls I’ve Ever Met. Listen to our favourite song by him - Kiss.
📖 / 🎥 And finally, could the famous Bollywood movie Namak Haraam be a closeted gay romance?! You decide what all that old Bollywood yaari-dosti male bonding means.
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.
We lost Monica Roberts, black trans woman journalist from the US and the founder of the blog TransGriot. You can read about her life, work and death here.
In India, we’ve been overwhelmed by the news of many brutal sexual assaults that have surfaced over the past few weeks, since the killing of Manisha Valmiki, and also the assaults on Dalit people across the country. The Twitter handle @IndiaMeToo, run by journalist Rituparna Chatterjee, regularly curates news of sexual assault against savarna as well as Dalit women (primarily cis women). This list has names and handles of Dalit women, both cis and queer, that you can follow to stay aware, take action, and remember the names of those who are killed by cis hetero savarna patriarchy.
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
Nazariya: A Queer Feminist Resource Group is raising funds to create safe spaces and homes for queer women and trans* persons in Delhi. 180 requests have been received from lesbian, bisexual women and trans* persons in 2019-2020 for shelter and dealing with domestic violence. Donate here!
Queer Quote of the Week:
As for
gender I can’t explain it
any more than a poem: there
was an instinct, I followed
it.
— Oliver Baez Bendorf, trans latinx poet and professor, in the poem Dysphoria.
Thank you for reading, and see you for our next letter!
Send in tips and stay in touch: queeringabout@gmail.com.