LGBTQ

In a first step towards empowering the transgender population of India, The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019, has been passed in the lower house of the parliament by a voice vote on August 5. The bill introduced with an aim to ensure that the people of the transgender community are able to...

India’s LGBTQ economy is largely untapped, and research by Godrej India Culture Lab shows that it has enormous potential. In most populations, around 6% of the adult population is LGBTQ. Applying that to India suggests that just under $200 billion (6% of GDP) can be assumed to be earned income from India’s estimated 45...

Kochi Metro’s move to hire 23 trans people from the self help group Kudumbashree in housekeeping and ticketing earned national as well as international attention. It is the first government owned company in India to formally appoint them. Many rounds of on-the-job training were conducted ― the new recruits were introduced to the various facilities,...

Shree Ghatak Muhuri, a transgender woman, has been cast in director Ram Kamal Mukherjee's film Season's Greetings. Celina Jaitly’s comeback movie will see the real life transgender playing a pivotal role. Shree is a terpsichorean, a theatre artist and also a social activist. Troyee foundation, a non-profit organisation, is run by Shree. The organisation specially...

From building an animal shelter ageing, injured and stranded creatures and strays to living as a vegetarian and being named PETA 2017 Person of the Year, Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma is one of today’s responsible stars. Anushka did extensive research for the animal shelter for over three years, visiting such institutions across India. While her...

Cinema has had a tremendous influence on the people of India. This makes its content, stories and the portrayal of characters in cinema of utmost importance. While the Indian film fraternity has started to understand its responsibility and has come out with films addressing social issues, the portrayal of LGBTQ characters in Bollywood films...

The work environment is no longer as it used to be. It is no longer easy to hold the simplistic vision that workers are the same as “human resources” or as “labour force”. Terms used to dehumanize and clear out any personal characteristic from this environment. The diversity of people, situations, perspectives and expectations force...

What does it actually mean to be an LGBT person? How much do young people who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or trans have in common? Even if the terms LGBT and LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) are used to refer to the LGBTQ community as a whole, it is important to remember...

India has become the first-ever country to have a gender-neutral hostel. The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai's Deonar has become the first campus in the country to have a gender-neutral hostel. This comes after the efforts by Queer Collective, an informal student body advocating a safe space for LGBTQ+ students. In an interview...

The transgender community has been assimilated into Indian society as hijras, long before transgender people started finding acceptance in the rest of the world. In April 2014, the Supreme Court made it official by recognizing hijra and transgender, eunuchs, intersex people as a 'third gender' by law. The nation’s association with the community has...

As part of our series on the LGBT community, today we are putting the spotlight on pansexuals. The term is back on the radar, after American singer Janelle Monae publicly came out as pansexual. Whether in music videos, television, film or books, pansexuality features in popular culture now more than ever. Depending on which social...

The Supreme Court’s dilution of Section 377 is sweeter news for the gay community than it is for lesbians. Bisexual women and lesbians will continue to be misunderstood. This faction of LGBTQ is largely perceived as sexually titillating rather than as a group fighting for equal rights. The first thing men think of when...