🌈Happy Pride Month🏳️‍🌈Celebrating Diversity and Love with Pride

🌈 Happy Pride Month 🏳️‍🌈

𝕋𝕙𝕚𝕤 ℙ𝕣𝕚𝕕𝕖,

ℕ𝕠 𝕡𝕣𝕖𝕛𝕦𝕕𝕚𝕔𝕖, 

𝕆𝕟𝕝𝕪 𝕝𝕠𝕧𝕖 𝕤𝕥𝕣𝕚𝕕𝕖

June marks the LGBTQIA+ Pride Month, celebrated across the globe for honouring and commemorating the Stonewall Riots (1969), a movement for the rights of the LGBT+ Community. 

'𝓜𝓸𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓸𝓯 𝓟𝓻𝓲𝓭𝓮', 𝓑𝓻𝓮𝓷𝓭𝓪 𝓗𝓸𝔀𝓪𝓻𝓭 𝓼𝓪𝓲𝓭, 

“𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓷𝓮𝔁𝓽 𝓽𝓲𝓶𝓮 𝓼𝓸𝓶𝓮𝓸𝓷𝓮 𝓪𝓼𝓴𝓼 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝔀𝓱𝔂 LGBT𝓟𝓻𝓲𝓭𝓮 𝓶𝓪𝓻𝓬𝓱𝓮𝓼 𝓮𝔁𝓲𝓼𝓽 𝓸𝓻 𝔀𝓱𝔂 𝓟𝓻𝓲𝓭𝓮 𝓜𝓸𝓷𝓽𝓱 𝓲𝓼 𝓙𝓾𝓷𝓮 𝓽𝓮𝓵𝓵 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓶

 ‘𝓐 𝓫𝓲𝓼𝓮𝔁𝓾𝓪𝓵 𝔀𝓸𝓶𝓪𝓷 𝓷𝓪𝓶𝓮𝓭 𝓑𝓻𝓮𝓷𝓭𝓪 𝓗𝓸𝔀𝓪𝓻𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓰𝓱𝓽 𝓲𝓽 𝓼𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓵𝓭 𝓫𝓮.' "

The Pride Movement across the globe stands for equal rights, visibility for the LGBTQIA+ community and against the hate crimes. 

The first Pride March was a Trans riot, and today we continue the movement for promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of the Community. 

The 3rd decade of 21st Century marks a beginning of new rainbow. The pandemic closed us all in our homes and provided an opportunity to explore ourselves and staying away from the gendered spaces brought many of us out of the closet.  

The early demonstrations often focused simply on participants’ being proud to be out of the closet, on individual freedom, and on the diversity of the LGBTQ community. But by the 1980s—particularly after the spread of AIDS—political and social activism had become central to Pride events, and many of the marchers carried placards that focused on the social issues of the day. 

As acceptance of the LGBTQ community increased among the straight community, politicians sympathetic to the views of the LGBTQ community and gay-friendly businesses and corporations began participating in the marches.

The total number of people participating—both gay and straight-allies—mushroomed, and Pride events were held in many part of the globe, including cities where they sometimes encountered stiff resistance.

Yesterday, I attended my first Pride March. A host of emotions drenched me when I saw the colourful outfits and amazing people, so loving and welcoming! 

The warm hugs dissolved my anxious feelings. The chants, flags and banners, screaming at top of our voices "Love is Love"; "We are queer, we are here!" - the adrenaline rush, the overflow of dopamine and serotonin. 

The feelings were mutual for most of us as it was our first Pride March. 

Wanna get high without dr*gs? 

Go to a 🌈Pride March🏳️‍🌈 it's much better than dr*gs I promise. 

🏳️‍🌈

𝓑𝓾𝓭𝓭𝔂, 𝔂𝓸𝓾'𝓻𝓮 𝓪 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓷𝓰 𝓶𝓪𝓷, 𝓱𝓪𝓻𝓭 𝓶𝓪𝓷

𝓢𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓲𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓽𝓻𝓮𝓮𝓽, 𝓰𝓸𝓷𝓷𝓪 𝓽𝓪𝓴𝓮 𝓸𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝔀𝓸𝓻𝓵𝓭 𝓼𝓸𝓶𝓮𝓭𝓪𝔂

𝓨𝓸𝓾 𝓰𝓸𝓽 𝓫𝓵𝓸𝓸𝓭 𝓸𝓷 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓯𝓪𝓬𝓮, 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓫𝓲𝓰 𝓭𝓲𝓼𝓰𝓻𝓪𝓬𝓮

𝓦𝓪𝓿𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓫𝓪𝓷𝓷𝓮𝓻 𝓪𝓵𝓵 𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓹𝓵𝓪𝓬𝓮

𝓦𝓮 𝔀𝓲𝓵𝓵, 𝔀𝓮 𝔀𝓲𝓵𝓵 𝓻𝓸𝓬𝓴 𝔂𝓸𝓾, 𝓼𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓲𝓽!

𝓦𝓮 𝔀𝓲𝓵𝓵, 𝔀𝓮 𝔀𝓲𝓵𝓵 𝓻𝓸𝓬𝓴 𝔂𝓸𝓾, 𝔂𝓮𝓪𝓱

-We Will Rock You, Queen

https://youtu.be/-tJYN-eG1zk

Feel free to ask any questions, share your experiences, thoughts and recommend books,songs, movies and shows that you've loved.

Question-Answers from pg 13

What does the LGBTQIA+ stand for?

Acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, agender or asexual and "+" for the other identities and labels. LGBT and LGBTQ+ are also used, with the + added in recognition of all non-straight, non-cisgender identities. 

Ask people how they describe themselves before labeling their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Sexual Orientation

The scientifically accurate term for an person’s enduring physical, romantic and/ or emotional attraction to another person. Sexual orientations can include heterosexual (straight), lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, asexual, and other orientations. People need not have had specific sexual experiences to know their own sexual orientation; in fact, they need not have had any sexual experience at all.

Gender identity and sexual orientation are not the same. 

Lesbian

A woman whose enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction is to other women. Some lesbians may prefer to identify as gay (adj.) or as gay women. Avoid identifying lesbians as "homosexuals.” Lesbian can be used as a noun or adjective. 

Although there are multiple versions of the Lesbian Pride Flag, this one—which has been around since 2018—appears to be the one that’s most widely embraced. The seven different shades of pink, orange, white, and red were used to represent different types of femininity. 

Gay

An adjective used to describe a person whose enduring physical, romantic, and/ or emotional attractions are to people of the same sex (e.g., gay man, gay people). Avoid identifying gay people as "homosexuals" an outdated term considered derogatory and offensive to many lesbian and gay people.

This is the new, more accepted and widely used version of a flag for gay men specifically created by user gayflagblog on 10th July 2019. 

"The green (Community) and teal (Joy) in the flag represent Nature. I thought this was important because love between men is often seen as “unnatural” in the eyes of society and in religion. Furthermore, gay men have historically used green flowers and plants (Carnations, hyacinths, etc.) to symbolize our love, reinforcing our connection with Nature. The white stripe is adopted from the Trans Pride flag because trans, nb, and GNC men are often erased or talked over and need explicit representation. We have a lot of unadressed and blatant Transphobia, internalized Homophobia, and Toxic Masculinity directed towards GNC/non-cis men in our community that we need to address and resolve. The purple (Fortitude) and indigo (Diversity) in the flag represent diversity in presentation, relationships, & life experience. We’re so often stereotyped as all fitting into these neat little categories, especially by those who choose to fetishize us & by non-MLM, but in reality there are so so many different ways to be a man and so many ways to be a man who loves or who is in a relationship with other men, and this needs to be emphasized. Purple is a mix of blue and red, and seeing as common criticism of other gay man flag proposals is “oh blue for boy? bleh”, I decided to have a light blue stripe leading into a deep purple to symbolize how some of us might be stereotypical, some of us might not be, and some of us are in-between or fluid. Regardless, we should all be celebrated and respected. This flag is inclusive of all gay (men loving men) men."

Bisexual, Bi, Bi+

An adjective used to describe a person who has the potential to be physically, romantically, and/or emotionally attracted to people of more than one gender, not necessarily at the same time, in the same way, or to the same degree. The bi in bisexual refers to genders the same as and different from one's own gender. 

People may experience this attraction in differing ways and degrees over their lifetime. Some people use the words bisexual and bi to describe the community. Others may use bi+ which is intended to be inclusive of those who call themselves bisexual, pansexual, fluid, queer and other words which describe people who have the potential to be attracted to more than one gender. Similar to questioning, people might say they are bicurious if they are exploring whether or not they are attracted to people of the same gender as well as people of other genders. 

Florida-based LGBTQ activist Michael Page created the Bisexual Pride Flag in 1998 to increase the visibility of bisexual individuals—who are attracted to two genders—in both the LGBTQ community and society as a whole. The pink represents attraction to those of the same gender identity, while the blue stands for attraction to people who identify as a different gender. The purple stripe in the middle symbolizes attraction to two genders.

Pansexual

An adjective used to describe a person who has the capacity to form enduring physical, romantic, and/ or emotional attractions to any person, regardless of gender identity. 

Pansexual folks—who are attracted to people regardless of their gender identity—got their own flag around 2010. It was created to both increase their overall visibility and help differentiate the group from bisexual individuals. Here, the pink represents attraction to people who identify as female, while the blue stands for attraction to those who identify as male. The yellow stripe in the middle represents attraction to those who identify as genderqueer, nonbinary, agender, androgynous, or anyone who doesn’t identify on the male-female binary.

Transgender

An adjective to describe people whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. People who are transgender may also use other terms, in addition to transgender, to describe their gender more specifically.  

Use the term(s) the person uses to describe themself. It is important to note that being transgender is not dependent upon physical appearance or medical procedures. A person can call themself transgender the moment they realize that their gender identity is different than the sex they were assigned at birth.

The Transgender Pride Flag has been around since 1999, when an American transgender Navy veteran named Monica Helms created it. A year later, the flag made its debut at a Pride parade in Phoenix. Light blue and pink are featured because they’re the traditional colors associated with baby boys and girls, respectively. The white represents those who are intersex, transitioning, or see themselves as having a neutral or undefined gender.

Queer

An adjective used by some people, particularly younger people, whose sexual orientation is not exclusively heterosexual (e.g. queer person, queer woman). Typically, for those who identify as queer, the terms lesbian, gay, and bisexual are perceived to be too limiting and/or fraught with cultural connotations they feel do not apply to them. 

Once considered a pejorative term, queer has been reclaimed by some LGBTQ people to describe themselves. However, it is not a universally accepted term even within the LGBTQ community, so use caution when using it outside of describing the way someone self-identifies or in a direct quote. 

When Q is seen at the end of LGBT, it typically means queer. In a setting for support, particularly for youth, it may mean questioning. 

Genderqueer Pride Flag, which writer and activist Marilyn Roxie designed in 2011 with input from the readers of the website Genderqueer Identities. As the combination of the traditionally masculine and feminine colors (blue and pink), lavender represents androgyny and other queer identities, while white stands for agender identity and green represents those whose identities are defined outside the binary.

Although the flag’s designer and year of creation are unknown, the Queer People of Color (QPOC) Pride Flag made an appearance at San Francisco Pride in 2019 and rose to prominence in 2020. The raised clenched fist in the center of the traditional rainbow flag indicates solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. The QPOC flag also represents how intertwined the queer community and people of color have been over the years in their fight for equality, including in the early days of the queer liberation movement and the work of activist Marsha P. Johnson.

Intersex

Intersex is “an umbrella term describing people born with reproductive or sexual anatomy and/or a chromosome pattern that can't be classified as typically male or female.” An adjective used to describe a person with one or more innate sex characteristics, including genitals, internal reproductive organs, and chromosomes, that fall outside of traditional conceptions of male or female bodies. Do not confuse having an intersex trait with being transgender. Intersex people are assigned a sex at birth — either male or female — and that decision by medical providers and parents may not match the gender identity of the child. 

The A is used to represent those who identify as asexual or those who are agender. 

Asexual

An adjective used to describe a person who does not experience sexual attraction (e.g., asexual person). Sometimes shortened to "ace." Asexual is an umbrella term that can also include people who are demisexual, meaning a person who does experience some sexual attraction, but only in certain situations, for example, after they have formed a strong emotional or romantic connection with a partner.

Agender 

Agender Pride Flag created in 2014 by New York–based artist and activist Salem X, the Agender Pride Flag represents people who identify as having no gender, an unidentifiable gender, or being gender neutral. There are a total of seven stripes: two black, two gray, two white, and one green, with each color having its own meaning:

Black: The absence of gender

White: The absence of gender

Gray: Semi-genderless

Green: Nonbinary genders

Nonbinary

Nonbinary is an adjective used by people who experience their gender identity and/or gender expression as falling outside the binary gender categories of man and woman. Many nonbinary people also call themselves transgender and consider themselves part of the transgender community. Others do not. Nonbinary is an umbrella term that encompasses many different ways to understand one's gender. Some nonbinary people may also use words like agender, bigender, demigender, pangender, etc. to describe the specific way in which they are nonbinary. Always ask people what words they use to describe themselves. Nonbinary is sometimes shortened to enby. 

This LGBTQ flag was created in 2014 to represent nonbinary people, whose gender identity does not fit within the traditional male/female binary. The goal wasn’t to replace the Genderqueer Pride Flag but to fly the Nonbinary Pride Flag alongside it. Its colors symbolize those whose gender falls outside of and without reference to the binary (yellow), people with many or all genders (white), those whose gender identity falls somewhere between male/female or is a mix of them (purple), and people who feel they are without a gender (black).

Genderfluid 

JJ Poole created the Genderfluid Pride Flag in 2013 to represent folks whose gender identity and/or expression is fluid and may fluctuate at different times or in different circumstances. The flag has five horizontal stripes of different colors representing femininity (pink), lack of gender (white), a combination of both masculinity and femininity (purple), all genders anywhere on the spectrum (black), and masculinity (blue).

Other Identities

Allosexual
An adjective used to describe a person who experiences sexual attraction to others, and is not asexual (e.g., allosexual person).

Androsexual/Androphilic
An adjective used to describe a person who is primarily sexually, aesthetically, and/or romantically attracted to masculinity.

Aromantic
An adjective used to describe a person who does not experience romantic attraction. Aromantic is an umbrella term that can also include people who are demiromantic, meaning a person who does not experience romantic attraction until a strong emotional or sexual connection is formed with a partner.

Gynesexual/gynephilic
An adjective used to describe a person who is primarily sexually, aesthetically, and/or romantically attracted to femininity.

Heterosexual
An adjective used to describe a person whose enduring physical, romantic, and/ or emotional attraction is to people of a sex different than their own. Also: straight.

Homosexual
Outdated clinical term considered derogatory and offensive. 

Questioning

An adjective used by some people who are in the process of exploring their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

Same-Gender Loving
Also known as SGL, this is a term used by some African American people as an Afrocentric alternative to what are considered Eurocentric, or white, identities like gay and lesbian. Coined by activist Cleo Manago in the 1990s, the term and its usage explicitly recognizes the histories and cultures of people of African descent.

Two-Spirit
An adjective used by some Indigenous and First Nations people as an umbrella term to describe people who are not straight and/or cisgender. Many Indigenous communities have specific words in their language to describe these experiences, but some do not. This term should not be used to describe people who are not Indigenous. Only use it for an Indigenous person if they use it to describe themselves.

Source : https://www.glaad.org/reference/terms & https://www.rd.com/list/lgbtq-flags/

Some Terms

Ally/Allies
An adjective used to describe a straight and/or cisgender person who supports and advocates for LGBTQ people. 

Biphobia
Prejudice or hatred toward bisexual people, expressed in speech or actions. Biphobia may be expressed in comments that reflect doubts about the legitimacy of bisexuality as an orientation, inaccurately implying that it is not real, "just a phase" or a cover for someone not ready to come out as gay. Intolerance, bias, or prejudice is usually a more accurate description.

Civil Union
Historically used in the U.S. to describe state-based relationship recognition for same-sex couples that offered some or all of the state rights, protections, and responsibilities of marriage, but none of the federal rights. While many Western countries (including the United States) have now legalized marriage equality, others only legally recognise same-sex relationships through civil unions or other legal partnerships. Only 69 countries in world recognise these relationships. 

Closeted
Describes a person who is not open about their sexual orientation. Better to simply refer to someone as not out about being LGBTQ. People may be out to some people in their life, but not out to others due to fear of rejection, harassment, violence, losing one's job, or other concerns.

Coming Out
A lifelong process of self-acceptance. People come to understand their own sexual orientation first, and then they may reveal it to others. It is not necessary to have sexual experiences to come out as LGBTQ, nor is it necessary to tell others. It is possible to simply be out to one's self.

Domestic Partnership
Civil/legal recognition of a committed relationship between two people that sometimes extends limited legal protections to them.

Homophobia
Prejudice or hatred toward gay, lesbian, bisexual, or queer people, expressed in speech or actions. Intolerance, bias, or prejudice is usually a more accurate description.

Lifestyle
Inaccurate term used by anti-LGBTQ activists to denigrate LGBTQ people and inaccurately imply that being LGBTQ is a voluntary or a “choice.” As there is no one straight lifestyle, there is no one LGBTQ lifestyle.

Marriage or Marriage Equality
When reporting on marriage for same-sex couples, preferred terminology includes marriage equality, marriage for same-sex couples, or just marriage. Note, the terms "gay marriage" and "same-sex marriage" should be avoided, as they can suggest marriage for same-sex couples is somehow different or less equal than other marriages. 

Openly Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender
This phrase is now dated. Please see Out below. "Openly gay" has been used to describe people who self-identify as gay in their personal, public, and/or professional lives. Also openly lesbian, openly bisexual, openly transgender, openly queer. While technically accurate, the phrase implies a confessional aspect to publicly acknowledging one's sexual orientation or gender identity. It is now better to avoid this phrase.

Out
A person who self-identifies as gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer and/or transgender  in their personal, public, and/or professional lives. For example: Ricky Martin is an out gay pop star from Puerto Rico. Preferred to openly gay.

Outing
The act of publicly revealing (sometimes based on rumor and/or speculation) another person's sexual orientation or gender identity without that person's consent. Considered inappropriate and potentially dangerous by a large portion of the LGBTQ community.

Sodomy Laws
Historically used to selectively persecute gay people, the state laws often referred to as "sodomy laws".  "Sodomy" should never be used to describe relationships or sexual orientation.

TERMS TO AVOID
"homosexual" (n. or adj.)
Because of the clinical history of the word “homosexual,” it is aggressively used by anti-LGBTQ activists to suggest that people attracted to the same sex are somehow diseased or psychologically/emotionally disordered – notions discredited by the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association in the 1970s. Please avoid using "homosexual" except in direct quotes. Please also avoid using "homosexual" as a style variation simply to avoid repeated use of the word "gay." Many mainstream news outlets’ style guides restrict use of the term "homosexual."

BEST PRACTICE
gay (adj.); gay man or lesbian (adj., n.); gay person/people
Use gay, lesbian, or when appropriate, bisexual, pansexual, or queer to describe people attracted to people of the same gender or more than one gender. Ask people how they describe themselves before labeling their sexual orientation.

TERMS TO AVOID
"homosexual relations/relationship," "homosexual couple," "homosexual sex," etc.
Identifying a same-sex couple as "a homosexual couple," characterizing their relationship as "a homosexual relationship," or identifying their intimacy as "homosexual sex" should be avoided. These constructions are frequently used by anti-LGBTQ activists to denigrate LGBTQ people, couples, and relationships.

BEST PRACTICE
relationship, couple (or, if necessary, gay/lesbian/same-sex couple), sex, etc.
As a rule, try to avoid labeling an activity, emotion, or relationship gay, lesbian, bisexual, or queer unless you would call the same activity, emotion, or relationship "straight" if engaged in by someone of another orientation.

TERMS TO AVOID
"sexual preference"
The term "sexual preference" is typically used to inaccurately suggest that being attracted to the same sex is a choice and therefore can and should be "cured" or "changed."

BEST PRACTICE
sexual orientation or orientation
Sexual orientation is the accurate description of an person's enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction to people of the same gender and/or people of a different gender, and is inclusive of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and pansexual, as well as straight people.

TERMS TO AVOID
"gay lifestyle," “LGBTQ lifestyle,” "homosexual lifestyle," or "transgender lifestyle"
There is no single “LGBTQ lifestyle.” LGBTQ people are diverse in the ways they lead their lives. The phrases "gay lifestyle," “LGBTQ lifestyle,” "homosexual lifestyle," and "transgender lifestyle" are used to denigrate LGBTQ people by inaccurately suggesting that their sexual orientation and/or gender identity is a choice and therefore can and should be "cured" or "changed."

BEST PRACTICE
LGBTQ people and their lives

TERMS TO AVOID
"gay rights" or "special rights"
People who are LGBTQ are not asking for rights that are different from the rights everyone has. They are simply seeking full equality under the law and an end to discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.

BEST PRACTICE
Equality for LGBTQ people. LGBTQ people are advocating to be treated equally.

Anti-LGBTQ Terms Mainstream Media Should Avoid

"fag," "faggot," "dyke," "homo," "sodomite," and similar epithets

While some in the community have reclaimed and use these words to describe themselves, the criteria for mainstream news media in using these derogatory terms should be the same as those applied to vulgar epithets used to target other groups: they should not be used except in a direct quote that reveals the bias of the person quoted or if a LGBTQ person uses the term to describe themself. So that such words are not given credibility in the media, it is preferred that reporters say, "The person used a derogatory word for a lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/queer person" except when a LGBTQ person uses the term to describe themself.

"deviant," "disordered," "dysfunctional," "diseased," "perverted," "destructive" and similar descriptions

The notion that being LGBTQ is a psychological disorder was discredited by the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association in the 1970s. Words such as deviant," "diseased" and "disordered" are sometimes used to portray LGBTQ people as less than human, mentally ill, or as a danger to society. Words such as these should be avoided in stories about the LGBTQ community. If they must be used, they should be quoted directly in a way that clearly reveals the bias of the person being quoted.

Associating LGBTQ people with pedophilia, child abuse, sexual abuse, bestiality, bigamy, polygamy, adultery and/or incest

Being LGBTQ is neither synonymous with, nor indicative of, any tendency toward pedophilia, child abuse, sexual abuse, bestiality, bigamy, polygamy, adultery and/or incest. Such claims, innuendoes and associations often are used to insinuate that LGBTQ people pose a threat to society, to families, and to children in particular. Such assertions and insinuations are defamatory and should be avoided, except in direct quotes that clearly reveal the bias of the person quoted.

Source : https://www.glaad.org/reference/terms 

Memoirs of the AIDS Epidemic

Dr P S Sahni and Siddharth Gautam (wearing spectacles), two stalwarts of AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan (ABVA), protesting in front of Delhi High Court in 1991. Siddharth joined the ABVA once he returned after studying at Yale, in around 1989.

In 1994, ABVA filed the first petition challenging the constitutionality of Section 377 in the Delhi High Court, in order to challenge prison authorities' ban on condom distribution.

ABVA got involved in AIDS activism in 1989 on hearing from women in the red-light area that doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) & the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had forcibly tested them for HIV, with the help of the police. ABVA protested this action, asking that good quality condoms, humane treatment and rehabilitation schemes for people living with HIV be made a prerequisite for any government screening for HIV. In addition, it began running a free dispensary for sex workers in Delhi's GB Road District.

Between February 1990 and August 1991, the ABVA organised several demonstrations in New Delhi to protest against the prevailing discriminatory attitude of authorities against HIV/ AIDS victims.

The 1994 ABVA petition was filed in the Delhi high court in response to the then IG (Prisons) blocking access to condoms at Tihar Jail, India's largest prison. Reacting to claims that two-thirds of all inmates at Tihar had engaged in homosexual behaviour, Bedi said consensual homosexual behaviour was virtually unknown at Tihar (she said prisoners were hurt by such allegations and she was turning it into an Ashram) and that usage of condoms would promote homosexuality.

In late 1991, ABVA came out with a report titled "Less Than Gay: A Citizens' Report on the Status of Homosexuality in India" which was the first document to publicly demand queer rights in India.

🏳️‍🌈

"The AIDS epidemic was also ravaging gay men and hijras across India, but for them there were there were no feisty path-breaking collectives, let alone carnivals and national conferences attended by national leaders. For all that, the changes for gay men and hijras-our sisters in arms-were real. I began to know about V.Sekar, an openly gay man in Chennai & Noori from the aravani community both living with HIV. Noori was working with a "positive people" network when we first met but soon thereafter started her own grassroots group, focused on aiding aravanis. She was a striking figure-forceful and tall, her sari wound awkwardly around her like wrapping paper, wearing traditional makeup on her strong, square-jawed features."I found out many years ago that I was infected with AIDS," Noori told me. "I was in Bombay then, living in a rented house with other aravanis. I earned most of my money through sex with men.But after finding out that I was infected, I never sold sex again.I moved back to Chennai once I fell very sick, as I longed to be with other Tamil people. And it's cheaper here, so my savings will last longer. They also treat you better in Chennai hospitals. In Mumbai, hospitals won't treat aravanis even if they don't have AIDS. The prejudice in that city is so bad, the police won't even allow aravanis to beg. Anyway, most of my aravani friends in Mumbai are dead or dying. But now so are many of the aravanis here. We finally got some money from the government to educate ourselves about AIDS. But it's too late for most of us! By the close of the 1990s, the open advocacy by Sekar and Noori in Chennai government had recently launched HIV prevention efforts among gay and bisexual men and trans women. An inflow of international funding now made it possible for grassroots activists and groups to begin expanding HIV prevention services for gay and bisexual men as well as trans women. Even till the late 1990s, there had probably been no more than half a dozen such grassroots groups, all concentrated in major cities. But by 2005,there were dozens, spread across the small towns."

Excerpt from the book

An Indefinite Sentence : A Personal History of Outlawed Love and Sex by Siddharth Dube 

-via lgbthistoryindia (IG)

my night manager (who is a gay man) and i sometimes sit down and exchange stories and tidbits about our sexuality and our experiences in the queer cultural enclave. and tonight he and i were talking about the AIDS epidemic. he's about 50 years old. talking to him about it really hit me hard. like, at one point i commented, "yeah, i've heard that every gay person who lived through the epidemic knew at least 2 or 3 people who died," and he was like "2 or 3? if you went to any bar in manhattan from 1980 to 1990, you knew at least two or three dozen. and if you worked at gay men's health crisis, you knew hundreds." and he just listed off so many of his friends who died from it, people who he knew personally and for years. and he even said he has no idea how he made it out alive.

it was really interesting because he said before the aids epidemic, being gay was almost cool. like, it was really becoming accepted. but aids forced everyone back in the closet. it destroyed friendships, relationships, so many cultural centers closed down over it. it basically obliterated all of the progress that queer people had made in the past 50 years.

and like, it's weird to me, and what i brought to the conversation (i really couldn't say much though, i was speechless mostly) was like, it's so weird to me that there's no continuity in our history? like, aids literally destroyed an entire generation of queer people and our culture. and when you think about it, we are really the first generation of queer people after the aids epidemic. but like, when does anyone our age (16-28 i guess?) ever really talk about aids in terms of the history of queer people? like it's almost totally forgotten. but it was so huge.

imagine that. like, dozens of your friends just dropping dead around you, and you had no idea why, no idea how, and no idea if you would be the next person to die. and it wasn't a quick death. you would waste away for months and become emaciated and then, eventually, die. and i know it's kinda sophomoric to suggest this, but like, imagine that happening today with blogs and the internet? like people would just disappear off your tumblr, facebook, instagram, etc. and eventually you'd find out from someone "oh yeah, they and four of their friends died from aids."

so idk. it was really moving to hear it from someone who experienced it firsthand. and that's the outrageous thing - every queer person you meet over the age of, what, 40? has a story to tell about aids. every time you see a queer person over the age of 40, you know they had friends who died of aids. so idk, i feel like we as the first generation of queer people coming out of the epidemic really have a responsibility to do justice to the history of aids, and we haven't been doing a very good job of it.  

-marxvx

Younger than 40.

I'm 36. I came out in 1995, 20 years ago. My girlfriend and I started volunteering at the local AIDS support agency, basically just to meet gay adults and meet people who maybe had it together a little better than our classmates. The antiretrovirals were out by then, but all they were doing yet was slowing things down. AIDS was still a death sentence.

The agency had a bunch of different services, and we did a lot of things helping out there, from bagging up canned goods from a food drive to sorting condoms by expiration date to peer safer sex education. But we both sewed, so... we both ended up helping people with Quilt panels for their beloved dead.

Do the young queers coming up know about the Quilt? If you want history, my darlings, there it is. They started it in 1985. When someone died, his loved ones would get together and make a quilt panel, 3'x6', the size of a grave. They were works of art, many of them. Even the simplest, just pieces of fabric with messages of loved scrawled in permanent ink, were so beautiful and so sad.

They sewed them together in groups of 8 to form a panel. By the 90s, huge chunks of it were traveling the country all the time. They'd get an exhibition hall or a gym or park or whatever in your area, and lay out the blocks, all over the ground with paths between them, so you could walk around and see them. And at all times, there was someone reading. Reading off the names of the dead. There was this huge long list, of people whose names were in the Quilt, and people would volunteer to just read them aloud in shifts.

HIV- people would come in to work on panels, too, of course, but most of the people we were helping were dying themselves. The first time someone I'd worked closely with died, it was my first semester away at college. I caught the Greyhound home for his funeral in the beautiful, tiny, old church in the old downtown, with the bells. I'd helped him with his partner's panel. Before I went back to school, I left supplies to be used for his, since I couldn't be there to sew a stitch. I lost track of a lot of the people I knew there, busy with college and then plunged into my first really serious depressive cycle. I have no idea who, of all the people I knew, lived for how long.

The Quilt, by the way, weighs more than 54 tons, and has over 96,000 names. At that, it represents maybe 20% of the people who died of AIDS in the US alone.

There were many trans women dying, too, btw. Don't forget them. (Cis queer women did die of AIDS, too, but in far smaller numbers.) Life was and is incredibly hard for trans women, especially TWOC (Trans Women of Colour). Pushed out to live on the streets young, or unable to get legal work, they were (and are) often forced into sex work of the most dangerous kinds, a really good way to get HIV at the time. Those for whom life was not quite so bad often found homes in the gay community, if they were attracted to men, and identified as drag queens, often for years before transitioning. In that situation, they were at the same risk for the virus as cis gay men.

Cis queer women, while at a much lower risk on a sexual vector, were there, too. Helping. Most of the case workers at that agency and every agency I later encountered were queer women. Queer woman cooked and cleaned and cared for the dying, and for the survivors. We held hands with those waiting for their test results. Went out on the protests, helped friends who could barely move to lie down on the steps of the hospitals that would not take them in those were the original Die-Ins, btw, people who were literally lying down to die rather than move, who meant to die right there out in public - marched, carted the Quilt panels from place to place. Whatever our friends and brothers needed. We did what we could.

OK, that's it, that's all I can write. I keep crying. Go read some history. Or watch it, there are several good documentaries out there. Don't watch fictional movies, don't read or watch anything done by straight people, f*ck them anyway, they always made it about the tragedy and noble suffering. F*ck that. Learn about the terror and the anger and the radicalism and the raw, naked grief.

I was there, though, for a tiny piece of it. And even that tiny piece of it left its stamp on me. Deep. 

-madgastronomer 

𝕽𝖊𝖈𝖔𝖒𝖒𝖊𝖓𝖉𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓𝖘

𝓢𝓸𝓷𝓰𝓼 

The Village by Wrabel 

There's nothing wrong with you, it's true, it's true,

there's something wrong with the village

Born this Way by Lady Gaga

No matter gay, straight, or bi', lesbian, transgender life

I'm on the right track, baby, I was born to survive

No matter Black, white or beige, chola, or Orient' made

I'm on the right track, baby, I was born to be brave

I'm beautiful in my way 'cause God makes no mistakes

You need to calm down by Taylor Swift

Shade never made anybody less gay so

I will survive by Gloria Gaynor

I used to cry 

But now I hold my head up high

Only the brave by Louis Tomlinson 

And they'll say, "I told you so

Come on, when you know, you know"

All the lonely shadow dances from the cradle to the grave

It's a solo song and it's only for the brave

I'm Coming Out by Diana Ross

I'm coming out

I want the world to know

Got to let it show

We are the champions by Queen

We are the champions, my friends

And we'll keep on fighting 'til the end

Proud by Heather Small 

I step out of the ordinary

I can feel my soul ascending

I'm on my way, can't stop me now

And you can do the same, yeah

Better in color by Lizzo

See my vision

Rainbow smitten

It's easy baby, got the whole world for the pickin'

https://www.timeout.com/music/best-gay-songs

𝕭𝖔𝖔𝖐𝖘

𝕱𝖎𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 

• Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigirdar
• My Policeman by Bethan Roberts (also being made into a movie)
• The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri
• Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart

🏳️‍🌈

𝕹𝖔𝖓𝖋𝖎𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓

• An Indefinite Sentence : A Personal History of Outlawed Love and Sex by Siddharth Dube
• Uncomfortable Labels : My Life as a Gay Autistic Trans Woman by Laura Kate Dale
• Neither Man not Woman : The Hijras of India by Serena Nanda
• Transcribed : An Anthology of Trans Writing edited by Ezra Horbury & Christine "Xine" Yao
• We Have Always Been Here by Samra Habib
• The Book of Non-Binary Joy by Ben Pechey

𝓜𝓸𝓿𝓲𝓮𝓼 & 𝓢𝓱𝓸𝔀𝓼

Netflix:

Heartstopper

Merlin

Grace and Frankie

Sex Education (Season 2)

The L Word

Schitts Creek 

Atypical

Sense 8

🏳️‍🌈

Amazon Prime:

Good Omens 

Made in Heaven

Guilty Minds

🏳️‍🌈

𝓐𝓷𝓲𝓶𝓪𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓢𝓱𝓸𝔀𝓼

Netflix : 

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Kipo and The Age of Wonderbeasts

The Dragon Prince

Bojack Horseman

Arcane

🏳️‍🌈

𝓐𝓼𝓲𝓪𝓷 𝓓𝓻𝓪𝓶𝓪𝓼

 𝓣𝓱𝓪𝓲 

Bad Buddy (YouTube)

I Told Sunset About You & I Promised you the moon (Vimeo)

Dark Blue Kiss (YouTube)

2gether (Netflix)

TharnType (Netflix/Viki)

𝓢. 𝓚𝓸𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓷

Blueming (Viki)

To my star(Viki)

Semantic Error (Viki)

Light on Me (Viki)

𝓙𝓪𝓹𝓪𝓷   

Life Love on the line (Viki)

His (Viki) - Film

Kinou Nani Tabeta (Netflix)

𝓥𝓲𝓮𝓽𝓷𝓪𝓶

Goodbye mother (Viki) - Film

We Best Love and Fighting Mr. Second (sequel) 

𝓣𝓪𝓲𝔀𝓪𝓷

Your name engraved herein (Netflix) - Film

HIStory (series - Netflix/Viki)

𝓟𝓱𝓲𝓵𝓲𝓹𝓹𝓲𝓷𝓮𝓼

Gaya se pelikula (YouTube)

𝓒𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓮𝓼𝓮

The Untamed (Netflix)

𝓑𝓸𝓵𝓵𝔂𝔀𝓸𝓸𝓭 𝓜𝓸𝓿𝓲𝓮𝓼

Shubh Mangal Zyaada Saavdhan

Badhai Do

Chandigarh kare Aashiqui

Ek Ladki ko Dekha to Aisa Lagaa

Fire

Reccs from Sonatia, oye_nakhrewaali, Soni, Lizzie, Semantic.error, Shiri

https://aframe.oscars.org/what-to-watch/post/lgbtq-stories-worth-discovering-marcus-hu 

https://kchatjjigae.com/asian-dramamovie/korean-lgbt-moviesdramas/

https://screenrant.com/best-k-dramas-with-lgbtq-representation/

https://blwatcher.com/bl-series/korean-bl-dramas/

https://twitter.com/99cheerleaders/status/1534150227946614786

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/trends/entertainment/pride-month-5-films-that-dive-into-lgbtq-lives-8672571.html

Awesome thread❤️

Happy Pride to everyone🌈

Here's to wishing a better world where we can love who we want and be who we want🥂

This is a beautiful thread, Neha and it shows how much effort you have put in compiling everything. ❤️

This is such a delicate topic and yet social awareness is so important. It's high time people get off their high chairs and treat everyone with the same respect and compassion. Humanity should be the core of all human values. 

I strongly believe that ignorance can be cured if one is open to learning. However,  arrogance is something, that no matter how much one is taught, there is simply no learning. 

Love is Love and no one should be judged on the basis of who they want to spend their forever with. Live and let live! As simple as that.

Happy Pride Month, all and happy learning. 😳

https://www.instagram.com/p/CeRSF93rpxj/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

https://www.instagram.com/p/CeQsNjArn-1/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cea_wbyvtme/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Requesting GMs to make this thread GA for the month. 🌈🏳️‍🌈❤️

Heartstopper is on netflix, anyone who loves romance and teen romance should watch it❤️

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ceal8gCrgh2/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cd_flyFPpMq/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=