QUEEN’S ROAD: The Bengaluru Pride March, the grand finale of the Bengaluru Pride and Karnataka Queer Habba — a three-week-long event organised by the LGBTQ community in association with the Coalition for Sex workers and Sexuality Minorities Rights (CSMR) — was held in the city on Sunday afternoon.
The festival was entirely funded through individual donations, as CSMR had decided not to carry promotional material of political parties, religious organisations, corporates or any other for-profit entities.
As part of the festival, a number of activities were organised with the aim of collecting funds from the public.
“On November 8, we organised a garage sale at the Alternative Law Forum on Infantry Road, where people bought and sold used items. Close to 200 people participated in the sale and we made about `50,000,” says Ayaan Syed, one of the organisers.
On November 18, a poetry reading titled Writer’s Corner: A Queer Poetry, was held at Paradigm Shift in Koramangala. Over 60 guests took part in the event, in which 20 poets and writers read their works that revolve around queer lives in English, Kannada and Urdu.
A diversity fair was organised at Rococo Art Gallery on Rest House Road on Saturday. Besides cultural performances, the event featured stalls that sold books, arts and crafts, food and drinks and other goodies. Over 200 people participated and `25,000 was collected.
Earlier in the month, a campaign was taken out by the members of the LGBTQ community, who carried placards, interacted with the public and collected donations. According to their official blog, close to `3,000 was collected through the drive.
The organisers have also been active on the social media, creating awareness and gathering funds through their Facebook page as well as platforms like notforprofit.in. Through the latter, `45,500 of the target amount of `1,00,000 was collected.