Bengaluru: With the Supreme Court looking into the same-sex marriage issue, one of the oldest civilisations, and the largest democracy in the world, waits with bated breath for the outcome.
For the LGBTQ community, after the historic moments in 2018 when homosexuality was finally decriminalised following the Supreme Court ruling, this could well be the next defining moment in its quest for equality in society.
Part of the prevailing optimism that things will change for the better, is fuelled by the changing societal attitudes towards issues like same-sex relationships.
The slow but steady acceptance of movies in this genre is also playing a part in changing perceptions towards sexual minorities.
Realizing the limited opportunities available to the community to bring their stories to the screen, UK-based Indian filmmaker Neeraj Churi started Lotus Visual Productions with the sole purpose of producing and promoting South Asian LGBTQ+ films worldwide.
He has been associated with several film projects including ‘Sheer Qorma’ (2021), ‘Queer Parivaar’ (2022), ‘Gair’ (2022) and ‘Muhafiz’ (2022).
The latest production by Neeraj, ‘Ek Jagah Apni’, has received global recognition for its raw portrayal of the transgender community.
‘Ek Jagah Apni’ was also selected for Cannes Marche Du Film 2022 as part of NFDC-Goes-To-Cannes. The film premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival 2022 and won the Certificate of Merit as well as a special mention for two leads at the International Film Festival of Kerala 2022.
Churi feels that movies can be catalysts for societal change. “Those who are in the process of coming out, or are yet to come out probably feel more comfortable and less confused about their gender or orientation. They also feel less overwhelmed when they eventually decide to ‘come out’.”
Films and the media can build empathy and understanding. By amplifying marginalized voices and creating diverse perspectives, we can move towards a more equitable and just society where everyone feels seen, heard, and valued.
Cinema, when seen by the wider community hopefully helps them understand that the existence of the LGBTQ+ community is not just a Western implant, Churi told IANS.
He opined that legalizing same-sex marriage or broadening the term to marriage equality to include trans individuals, is not just a matter of equality, it’s a matter of dignity and humanity for those involved.
“It’s about providing the LGBTQ+ community with the same legal and social recognition that heterosexual couples receive. We are talking about access to insurance, medical benefits, financial nominations and the same benefits that spouses have. It’s about creating a more inclusive and accepting society that normalizes queer people as opposed to making them seem like objects to be afraid of,” he elaborated.
On a lighter note, the filmmaker feels that the legal sanctity of same-sex marriages will also lead to economic benefits for society at large.
“The Indian wedding industry is already a behemoth — $50 billion — and by opening it up to same-sex couples, we can tap into a whole new category of couples across the globe looking at India as a destination to get married. Here’s hoping that love prevails over hate and bias,” he signs off.
Mumbai: The students’ union president of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) who has chosen to be identified as queer has claimed discrimination at an event on the campus over “inappropriate” dress.
A TISS professor here said the institute is known for its inclusive nature and they will look into the matter if there has been any incidence where any student was made to feel discriminated against.
The alleged incident took place on March 25, when a speech was organised on “Ambedkar Nationalism, And the Need for Contemporary Collaborative Activitism”.
In a social media post, TISS students’ union president Pratik Permey said, “I was invited to the Ambedkar Memorial Lecture as a representative of the students’ union, to welcome the guests and do some formalities. When I reached the venue, around 6 pm I showed up in the usual dress. It was a blouse and a skirt.”
Around 7, Permey claimed, a professor and a few members of the organising committee said “for an event like this, you cannot wear something like that”.
Even if the institute wants to curb what students wear, it is not fine, said Permey. “Apart from being an indigenous and tribal person, I am also a queer. I also felt that my queerness was not allowed to represent or rather I was not allowed to because of my queerness,” Permey said.
The student union leader added, “I really felt violated and humiliated. My right and my freedom were curbed. I was not allowed to represent.”
Many professors have stood in solidarity and expressed their concerns and support for me. And from the recent conversations and revelations, apparently a group of PhD students were involved in the discussion of my clothes and expression.
A TISS professor said theirs is perhaps the only institution in the country with a gender-neutral hostel. TISS is known for its inclusive nature with all supportive mechanisms in place for students of all genders and identities to co-exist, said the professor.
“If there has been any incidence where any student feels discriminated, we will look into the matter. All students are assured of an inclusive atmosphere on the campus,” said the professor.
Mumbai: A new biopic based on Pakistani queer television personality Ali Saleem is in the works. Ali is a Pakistani television host, actor, scriptwriter and impressionist who broke into the mainstream audiences through his impersonations of late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and went on to play the cross-dressing Begum Nawazish Ali on various television channels.
Ali, who was biologically born a male to a retired colonel father in Pakistan Army, has sometimes called himself gay, bisexual or at other times even a transsexual. He was also a contestant in ‘Bigg Boss 4’ back in 2010.
Deepak Pandey, CEO of EORTV, who has announced a biopic, has expressed his desire to cast Mallika Sherawat for the part.
He said, “This is a strong story, a story of boldness and courage. The character is multifaceted and needed someone as courageous and undaunted as the Begum thyself. I am planning to approach Mallika Sherawat for this role as she would be apt for a fearless performance like this. It is important to create stories like these that can encourage more and more people to be open about their sexuality and sexual preferences. This is going to be a story of an unapologetically fearless man who’s leading a life of his own choice in spite of living in a politically warm environment”.
He further mentioned, “Begum Nawazish Ali’s background and childhood is interesting but the journey he makes in due course of his life is even more interesting. He has interviewed the who’s who from business, politics, entertainment with gusto. He has courted satire and controversy but managed to make a place in the hearts of the common man. His life will make for very compelling content on screen”.
EORTV works to build awareness among the society towards the Queer community and educate people about them. The platform showcases queer stories on screen with an aim to normalise it within mainstream society.
On a February morning in Brixton, old friends Yvonne Taylor and Eddie Lockhart are laughing about their first forays into London’s lesbian nightlife – and how they eventually went on to transform it. In 1984, Taylor moved from Nottingham to London and found the women-only clubs to be “torture”.
“There was a real concentration of women’s bars in Islington,” she recalls. “Islington had a lot of derelict properties and so there were a lot of lesbian community homes set up in them, and as a result there was a surge, certainly from the 70s, of these lesbians’ bars. But they were bars directed to white lesbians and touristy lesbians from the ’burbs.”
Taylor, now 63, and Lockhart, also known as DJ Shineye, 62, found the “music policy” of women-only clubs limited to “pop nonsense” and “old 50s numbers”.
“I knew that there was more music than what the DJs at the time were spinning and I had the fire in my belly that I needed to change this,” says Lockhart. “I knew that I wanted people who looked like me to be able to go to a space where they felt comfortable, and where they weren’t going to encounter any elements of racism and hostility that were very much there.”
Taylor and Lockhart met when Taylor’s then-partner was invited to a dinner that Lockhart was attending. The two immediately bonded over their shared experiences as Black lesbians navigating London’s women’s scene. “Eddie put forward the idea of doing this sound system run by women of colour,” says Taylor, who had prior DJing experience. “And literally by the time we’d left the flat, there was a plan in place. That was the first time we’d met, we just hit it off!”
Two years later, the pair launched the Sistermatic collective with their friends Sharon Lee and Lorna Edwards. Lifelong south London resident Lockhart had little interest in jumping through the kind of bureaucratic hoops often required of community-based projects, and instead went directly to South London Women’s Centre in Brixton with her proposal. They both remember Sistermatic’s launch night. Taylor had been in charge of PR, which involved promoting the event through flyers and word-of-mouth. “We’d done our own food, we’d brought our own bar,” she says, grinning. “In those days it was less of a licensing thing, but we got away with it!”
They were “packed from the get-go”, says Taylor. Lockhart describes it as “euphoric”: “At the end of the day, they hadn’t had anything like that before and this was something different. The fire in my belly said: it’s going to work. I think people were actually quite surprised by it happening, and having somewhere to go. And we continued it on a monthly basis.”
Yvonne Taylor preparing a set for Sistermatic in 1990. Photograph: Courtesy of Yvonne Taylor
For Taylor, a surprising aspect of Sistermatic was the broad demographic of women they would attract – not only Black women, but also south Asian women and white women who didn’t fit into the mainstream lesbian scene – all coming together to groove to soul, R&B, house and lovers rock. “We were probably one of the first lesbian clubs to hit the eclecticism of the community. We had women who were into S&M, butch dykes, femme dykes, it was a melting pot. I think we broke down a few barriers and mystiques that we had about each other, and it also did a lot to change the nature of how Black women related to each other, because obviously for them it was more difficult to come out.”
Taylor remembers ending the first party, sweeping people out at 10am – “it was a proper shebeen, man!” – and treating themselves to breakfast “because we made money as well, and we couldn’t believe that!”
But few, if any, photographs exist from those days beyond rave flyers – Sistermatic was intentionally restrictive around the use of cameras to prioritise the safety of attendees. Taylor remembers the custody struggles of bisexual and lesbian mothers in the 1980s: “There were lots of mothers who didn’t want their ex-husbands to come across photographs of them in the club and then use that to get the kids back.”
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Sistermatic was as dedicated to its patrons’ lives as it was giving them a good time. The Women’s Centre also meant Sistermatic could be more than just a club, but a community – “there was a cafeteria, where people could have food, have drinks, exchange words, and then they could go and dance,” says Lockhart. She had also chosen the venue because of its amenities: “I wanted a space where I could create a creche with a qualified worker there for mothers who had small children and couldn’t afford babysitters or nannies.” Mothers were not charged for use of the creche, which was financed collectively through the entrance fee.
Sistermatic ran until 1995 when the Women’s Centre lost its funding. Lockhart says that the company that leased the premises to the Women’s Centre eventually raised the rent to a level that local authorities were not prepared to fund. Despite fundraising attempts, the centre and Sistermatic closed.
Lockhart and Taylor, however, had established themselves as kingpins of Black queer sound and found themselves booked as DJs for Southall and Southwark Women’s Centres, as well as birthday parties and Pride events. They had set a precedent too – by 1997, the Black women’s night Precious Brown, run by Ain Bailey and DJ Marilyn, emerged at the Candy Bar in Soho, where Yvonne was working at the time.
‘The wheel can’t be reinvented – you can just improve that wheel and how it works’ … (L-R) Nite Dykez’ DJ Gin, Eddie Lockhart and Yvonne Taylor. Photograph: Courtesy of Yvonne Taylor
Twenty-seven years on, Sistermatic is set to return, hosting a street party in Brixton Village on 17 February to celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month. For Lockhart and Taylor, it’s an opportunity to explore the intergenerational pathways of music. Take Afrobeats, says Lockhart: “It’s linked with soca, elements of reggae, lovers rock – it’s got so much mixed in there.”
Joining forces with Nite Dykez, a monthly night and collective which celebrates love for electronic music among Black queer women, they hope to “encourage intergenerational work with younger lesbians”, says Lockhart.
“Because the way the system’s set up at the moment, there’s not a lot of intergenerational stuff being done – and not enough of it,” adds Taylor. “The wheel can’t be reinvented – you can just improve that wheel and how it works.” Although for now it’s a one-off event, Taylor sees it as the opportunity to begin a journey of education for younger people about the history of music and Black queer culture in Britain – and for their elders to teach them a move or two. “We’re trying to get people from that youth market to party with their auntie.”
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
