While the last two years in India saw a riotous celebration on September 6, after the country’s Supreme Court declared Section 377 (the British Raj-era law criminalising homosexuality) was unconstitutional “in so far as it criminalises consensual sexual conduct between adults of the same sex,” 2020’s pandemic, as usual, put a damper on any plans.
That being said, celebrations marking the day have gone digital, among them being an international webinar, organised by the Indian Queers’ Collective (ICQ) that had its first session on what the Indian LGBTQIA community have come to refer to as their independence day.
ICQ is an LGBTQIA collective of members of the community and their allies, with members all over the country.
“If you asked me where ICQ is headquartered, I’d say online, because our members hail from different parts of the country, as well as a few abroad, and almost all our discussions, debates and sessions take place in the digital medium,” says Akash*, a national convenor of the organisation.
The webinar, Assessing Freedom: Life after 377, is composed of three sessions. The first having took place yesterday and the following two will be held this weekend.
The first webinar, Human Sexuality: Medical and Psychological Perspectives, examined the spectrum of LGBTQIA identities from the medical and sexual perspective, with the panel comprising Dr Ashoojit Kaur Anand, clinical psychologist Swaathi Balasubramanian, and HIV Care and LGBTQ health care specialist Dr Praneeth Pillala. Each of the specialists gave a short presentation on various aspects of medical and gender aspects of the community, addressing issues such as safe sex practices, living with HIV (which is no longer anywhere close to the death sentence it was once considered), gender identities and coming out to friends, family, and society at large.
Afterwards the panel answered questions typed out by several of the 50-odd people who attended the session, where issues like self-care, gender identity, and ways of coming out were discussed. One aspect that popped up more than once was the lack of mental health care in smaller towns and rural India and the difficulty of coming out or even being part of the LGBTQIA spectrum in such traditionally conservative settings.
While Section 377 may have been struck off the Constitution, members of the LGBTQIA community are still stigmatised, which ICQ members feel will only change when the education system is revised, and kids are sensitised and taught to accept all identities. Gay marriage is still awaiting legal recognition, while transgenders continue to be marginalised by most of society.
“We hope to attract more members to our cause, and we hope that because our organisation, unlike many similar concerns, eschews any kind of political or ideological narrative and welcomes debate between people no matter what their personal socio-political affiliations. With this webinar, which is seeing interest from locals as well as NRIs, we hope to engage with the community more and make meaningful change,” signs off Akash. (*Uses pseudonym name to protect identity)