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Growing into LGBTQ activism: Vikram, Chennai
Now that I have actively participated in online and offline discussions in Orinam/MP for nearly six months and worked together with the core team to organize at least a couple of events, I feel I can...
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Fear
Memory is bizarre. It blocks out traumatic incidents, only to flood us with them when we are least prepared to deal with the deluge. Whenever I read about child sexual abuse in the news, a trigger is...
View ArticleI was raped
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First Love: a video by IIT-B students
In this heart-warming video, students of IIT-Bombay speak about their first love, including the kind that dares speak its name. Says Aditya Shankar from Saathi, the campus LGBT group, “…the video was...
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Coming out to my dad
So, some people know my story. I came out publicly in December 2013, and I’ve often mentioned several times that I came out to my dad even before I came out on Facebook. I get asked how Appa (my dad)...
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Why I am a feminist and supporter of LGBT rights
Editors’ Note: Some of us Orinam volunteers first met Soorya Sriram at a panel discussion on LGBT issues organised by Nirmukta/Chennai Freethinkers in February 2014. We subsequently read the essays*...
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Too far in the future: a transwoman’s thoughts on surgery
Over the last few months, I’ve been thinking seriously about surgery. Here’s the thing – I haven’t even begun hormones, so considering, or even thinking about surgery at this point, isn’t exactly...
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Sex Change in the Time of Saffron Politics
I know I have said this before, but coming out IS a continuous, never ending process. Every day, you’re coming out to someone, and to something. Sometimes, you’re just coming out to yourself; over and...
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Gender fluidity: my experiences and ideas
Image source: Eanil.com This article is only a personal reflection on some of my life experiences. I do not claim to be a philosopher or a sociologist who can answer all questions about how the society...
View ArticleWhat I Realised When My Close Friend Came Out To Me
Very recently, I was caught off-guard by one of my close friends who came out to me as gay, while we were in the middle of dinner at a restaurant. Stunned, I gulped down the food. I assumed my friend...
View ArticleComing Out as Transgender and Dyslexic in Corporate India
Indira is a transwoman who had initiated her personal and social transition process about four years ago and got her gender and name changed last year, in 2014. Indira also happens to be dyslexic and,...
View ArticleSupporting Ethical Queer Porn
I just paid 22 dollars to subscribe to a queer porn website. This is 22 dollars I really cannot afford to spend on anything, really. As in most economic scenarios, those 22 dollars, or 1700 rupees and...
View ArticleComing Out Late, Coming Clean
To my parents, wife, brother, close relatives and friends: This may be a shocking letter to anyone who thinks they know me well. I think it is better to reveal the truth before it is too late and...
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Ambedkar helped me embrace the ‘emotional’ within the rational
I think I have lost count of the number of times I have felt immensely guilty of getting what I have got because of my caste. I remember sitting in my university classes, people looking directly at my...
View ArticleRethinking gender and language in the face of privilege
For over two years now, the idea of privilege, especially my own privilege, has occupied my mind. I stayed clear of writing about identity; let me figure out the thin line between speaking with and...
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‘The smartphone freed me’: a journey of dating as a transwoman
Nadika, Second Life It was a Saturday morning. I shut the door to my room on some pretext, went into the bathroom, and began reading out numbers on my phone screen. The number sequence was random, and...
View ArticleOndede report on human rights violations against transgender people in Karnataka
Prerana Kudur from Ondede and Gowthaman Ranganathan from Alternative Law Forum have compiled powerful testimonies of transgender people in Karnataka. This report comes more than a decade after...
View ArticleA teacher’s rewards
Among my teaching assignments as a faculty member are a course in Sociology of Law for second year law students. LGBT issues are part of the core syllabus, as part of a module that also covers family,...
View ArticleThe biggest exam of my life: Bubbly comes out to family in Chennai
Dear Pappa, Mamma and Keerti, my sis, Never had I ever thought in my dear life that I would be in such a position. All I ever want is happiness for all. I am still trying to make that happen. Just to...
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visiBIlity
Photo credit: Sukrit Nagaraj Today is Coming Out Day 2016 and I would like to tell you a little story. It took me 27 years to admit I wasn’t straight. 15 of those years were spent in me being a...
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