2016 – orinam

The making of India’s first disability-accessible Pride: Namma Pride, Bengaluru, 2016

Ritesh Rajani and Madhumitha Venkataraman — Sun, 01 Jan 2017 18:28:35 +0000

Suggested citation format:
Rajani, Ritesh and Madhumitha Venkataraman. 2017. The making of India’s first disability-accessible Pride: Namma Pride, Bengaluru, 2016. Orinam.net. Retrieved on mm/dd/yyyy from https://new2.orinam.net/making-of-indias-first-disability-accessible-pride-bengaluru-2016

INTRODUCTION

Pride marches across the world have become important events for the show of strength and solidarity of the queer community. Pride celebrations, especially in India, are more than just a colorful parade. Prides are platforms for protests, for voicing out against oppression, and calling for an equal society. In recent years, Pride marches have embraced the idea of intersectionality – an idea that talks about equality beyond the lines of gender and sexuality. Queer individuals who walk the Pride march have identities beyond their queer identities. When we call for freedom and equality on the lines of gender/sexuality, we ought to recognize the call for equality on the lines of caste, class, region, religion and other divides or inequalities that exist today in the country/society.

Apart from incorporating these intersectionality groups, Namma Pride 2016 (Bangalore Pride 2016), went a step ahead and became India’s first pride to be made accessible to persons with disability.

This document talks about the need for accessibility, key steps taken to build accessibility and the Namma Pride 2016 journey of building accessibility.

WHY SHOULD YOU MAKE PRIDE ACCESSIBLE?

While queer prides should also call out inequities in the society that exist for people with disability from a political and equal rights stand point, there are four more arguments that make the case stronger:

Intersections: queer and disabled: Yet another aspect about the identity of a person, queer or otherwise, is ability/disability. There are many people with disability who may be queer (including asexual). And there are many persons who identify as LGBTQ+, who may be living with a visible/invisible disability. The intersections are largely unspoken about because sexuality of a person with disability itself is an unspoken topic. The society looks at persons with disability as largely asexual beings (a feeling that is sometimes internalized within the persons themselves). So, for a person with disability (who fights with enough battles already), to have explored their sexual identity, and be able to openly come out and say that they do not fall in the mainstream heterosexual cis-gender category is pretty uncommon. This does not mean that persons who are both queer and disabled do not exist.
Shades of similarity between both communities: Persons who have worked closely with both queer and disability communities know that there are striking similarities between the two. The situations may be different, but the pain, evolution and introspection that an individual from both communities goes through is similar. The problems of inequity that plague both the communities today are also similar. The coming together of both communities adds more strength to the movement of inclusion.
Accessibility is good for everyone: Like any other case, interventions made to include a particular section of society are largely good for everyone else too. Making Pride accessible for persons with disability has ensured that senior citizens, children, and people who just need a place to sit during the march can also participate. It has helped in reaching out to a larger audience, and enable participation of more individuals, as parents, friends, and colleagues can participate despite their age, and physical abilities they may have. Further, despite the greater visibility of young people in public LGBTQ+ community events, many members of the community are aging as well, and this opens doors to them.

Caveat: The core message of Queer Pride is the need for recognition and inclusion of people of diverse genders and sexualities. Making Pride disability-accessible does not detract from this message. Rather, by making Pride accessible, you affirm your commitment to include other groups, and your recognition of the intersectional nature of oppressions and identities.

HOW DO YOU MAKE PRIDE ACCESSIBLE?

Key decisions to be made

Pride team buy in: If you are taking the lead in proposing this idea, make sure that the Pride team signs off on the concept, budget and other requirements. Accessibility is a key component of every activity in Pride and therefore, team agreement is imperative. If majority of the team is bought in, go ahead. Address any questions, comments or thoughts on this in the first meeting itself, before you take it forward.
Have a separate team focused on accessibility: It would be good to have accessibility champions right from the start – the team can be 3-4 members, but members who are passionate about the concept. The team should include an expert in accessibility/ disability and preferably a person with disability as well. The responsibilities will be to work closely with other teams (especially logistics), to conduct accessibility audits, to create awareness in both the communities about the other and to plan the march well. Having 10-11 volunteers (as a part of the extended team) would be good during the march.
Just for Pride march? Or all events? Ideally, accessibility should be taken care of for all community events, not just for Pride. Making any event fully accessible may be an extension especially if you are doing this for the first time, however you could decide to provide specific assistance to any person with disability who wants to participate.
Inclusion towards all disabilities: Like sexualities and genders, disabilities are diverse, including locomotor, speech and hearing, psychosocial, visual disabilities, and beyond. Pride should be accessible for persons with less visible/invisible disabilities as well.
Decision on budget: Making Pride accessible does involve a budget. A range of INR 8000-15000 should be kept aside for this effort.

Sridevi from Adarsh College signing at Namma Pride 2016

Nine Steps to make Pride accessible

All venues for all events should be reasonably accessible: Choose venues that have ramps or two steps and not more to ensure accessibility. If you have videos, having a sign language interpreter or subtitles will ensure one can read.
Having a footnote in all your communication: Indicate that the event is accessible for persons with disability. Provide coordinates of go-to people, in case people want to participate and need assistance. Potential participants could reach out in advance and specify the assistance required, so that the team could provide the same. The communication should be kept simple and the website/app accessible for persons with visual impairment.
Partnering with an accessible cab service provider: This caters largely to persons with locomotor/mobility disability. For the Pride walk itself, you could tie-up with cab services that provide special cabs equipped with aids such as extensible ramps to accommodate wheelchairs, and/or have seating that is easily accessible for persons with disability to mount/dismount. In Bangalore, we tied up with Kick Start Cabs for Namma Pride 2016 who provide such services.
Sign language interpretation, subtitles and basic friendliness: Interventions to include persons with hearing and speech impairment may be made by providing sign language interpreters at major events such as post/pre-Pride speeches, and by ensuring that videos, and movies at screenings are sub-titled. Be friendly and speak to them – most of them will know how to lip read. Having a small notebook and pen will also help.
Assign volunteers to each individual with visual impairment: For persons with visual impairments and disabilities that do not come under the above two categories, inclusion can be done with the help of volunteer assistance. We just need to assign a buddy/volunteer with every individual to walk along and describe the happenings of the pride, and help them navigate tricky terrain (such as potholes).
Education on LGBTIQ to persons with disability and vice versa: Do sessions, create videos to educate both the communities about each other. Many persons with disability may never have heard of Pride and many queer persons may never have met a person with disability – so educating both sides is imperative.
Volunteer training: Share videos like ‘Awkward No More ’ to help volunteers understand what it means to volunteer with persons with disability. Partnering with a disability organization and getting volunteers from there is another idea, where extensive training may not be required.
Planning, organizing before the march:
- It is alright to ask persons with disability to register beforehand for special assistance – to accommodate their need.
- Make a list of persons who have reached out and shown interest in joining.
- Talk to each individual about what accommodations are required, how flexible they are for walking short distances for example. Be very clear about what is possible and what is not possible Say NO if you cannot accommodate certain requests (for example pickup from home). Respect persons with disability.
- They have been navigating their way through an in-accessible world every day, so they can make their decisions on how to participate and would ask for help when required.
Accessibility Audit: It would be useful to have step-by-step and turn-by-turn clarity of the pride route beforehand, with distance markers. It will be also good to know from the traffic police about points where traffic will be halted, cross-overs and one-ways. Ideally, an accessibility audit should be done by members of the accessibility team to walk the entire route of the pride to assess bottlenecks and challenge point for accessibility. Document hard to walk or wheelchair inaccessible terrains. Ensure police permission is also taken for the cabs/vehicles. Note specific places where cabs/vehicles cannot pass along the pride (one-ways, small lanes etc.). Create an alternate divergent route for the vehicles to take and join back. Note halt points for water and refreshments – they could be kept same as where persons with disability choose to mount/dismount cabs to walk the pride.

Useful references

Education on disability for LGBTQIA members (used to create awareness) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NwbgwwUrsE
Education on LGBTQIA+ for persons with disability (used to create awareness) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy-AaJ98yM8
Suggested note on disability in all the communication on the event (translate as needed): “If you are a person with a disability and/or would need special accommodation to participate in this event, please write to us at xyz@abc.com, providing details about your requirements. We work with you to make your participation possible.”

EXPERIENCE AT NAMMA PRIDE 2016 AS A DISABILITY-ACCESSIBLE PRIDE

The power of intersectionality

Namma Pride 2016, held on November 20, was the first Pride in India to be made accessible for persons with disability. The core accessibility team implemented all of the above steps to ensure that it was made accessible. There was also extensive campaigning done in advance to ensure participation of persons with disability in this celebration.

Outcome: Approximately 40 persons with disability participated in the Namma Pride 2016 march and associated events. This included persons with visual impairment, speech and hearing, and locomotor impairment. There were about four people who identified themselves as queer persons with disability. The feedback was extensively positive with many of the persons with disability having this experience for the first time.

Overall, it was a wonderful foray and was much appreciated by all. As always, any new initiative is a journey of progressive realization, and this was no different. There were a few key learning points, which we are sharing so that you can keep this in mind as you build an accessible Pride.

Key learning: 1) Maintain and buffer additional time to assemble and organize the persons with disability contingent (we already had but it tended to spill over). 2) Keep the cabs in the middle of the Pride march, both led and followed by people. If the cabs lead, the cops tended to speed up the whole march by asking cabs to move faster. 3) It is very important to have the Pride route decided well in advance – changes to the route can lead to a lot of chaos.

The team that made this happen

Core Team: Madhumitha Venkataraman, Ritesh Rajani, Naveen Joshi, Vishnu Soman, Vidushi Jayaswal, Vishnu Soman, Ajmal Muheed, Manas Modi, Manisha Shastri

Partnering Organizations: Enable Community, Kick Start Cabs, GiftAbled Foundation, Adarsh College, YUVA

Extended support from: Romal Liasram Singh, Priyank Asha Sukanand, Nakul Sharma

Volunteers: Madhumitha Venkataraman, Ritesh Rajani, Naveen Joshi, Naren Pai, Rishika, Noah D’Mello, Jason Jacob, Dharam Veer, Ranjitha K, Rohan, Vishwajit Singh, Kamlesh Singh

Email madhumitha.venkataraman@gmail.com for more information on this initiative

CONCLUSION

Building accessibility is a journey of progressive realization, so starting small is good and building on it every year, essential. The objective is not necessarily to have hundreds of persons with disability to participate, but to create a Pride where they are welcome to participate. It is very much like when we create an LGBTQ+ inclusive society, the objective is not for everyone to come out but have a safe/welcoming environment where they can choose to be out. Start by reaching out to small circles in the disability community and invite them to the accessible Pride. It is alright to take small steps in the right direction of full inclusion. Let’s create a more inclusive and accessible Pride for everyone. Happy Pride!

Is this the Transgender Persons “Prohibition of Rights” Bill 2016?

Gee Imaan Semmalar — Thu, 04 Aug 2016 23:43:32 +0000

Background:

When the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment [MSJE] announced the The Rights of Transgender Persons Bill, 2015, we were hopeful that it would be an extension of the citizenship rights that the Supreme Court judgment in April 2014, attempted to grant trans people in India. The ministry announced the draft bill of 2015 and sought recommendations to improve it. Many trans led groups like Sampoorna, Telangana Hijra Intersex Transgender Samithi, The South India Transgender Samithi, The Karnataka Transgender Samithi, LesbiT as well as many other groups sent responses and recommendations to the Ministry. In addition to this, several national consultations were held by the ministry with representatives of trans communities (largely chosen through NGOs) in Delhi.

The Transgender Persons [Protection of Rights] Bill 2016 was subsequently (read background box above) drafted and presented in the Lok Sabha yesterday. It is a shockingly distorted and reductionist version of their own previous Bill! I can find no other explanation for this other than that, the officials at the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment are on some serious psychedelic substances.

A critical look at The Transgender Persons [Protection of Rights] Bill 2016 —

Definitions

The latest bill completely does away with the important definitions of abuse, discrimination, stigma, exploitation and violence apart from many other definitions that were drafted in the previous MSJE bill.

Apart from this, let us look at the definition of transgender given –

The Transgender Persons [Protection of Rights] Bill 2016 says:

“transgender person” means a person who is—

(A) neither wholly female nor wholly male; or

(B) a combination of female or male; or

(C) neither female nor male; and

whose sense of gender does not match with the gender assigned to that person at the time of birth, and includes trans-men and trans-women, persons with intersex variations and gender-queers.

The MSJE has clearly bought into the popular culture narrative of trans people as phantasmagoric beings who are half man- half woman, or neither male/female. The latest definition given by them is biologically determinist and would apply more, to people with intersex variations who identify as gender queer or a section of trans people who identify as third gender but not the whole spectrum. So, what happens to the trans and intersex people who identify as male or female? The use of “and” instead of “or” effectively means A,B,C are the only options.

In comparison to this, the earlier MSJE bill of 2015 says

‘Transgender Person’ means a person, whose gender does not match with the gender assigned to that person at birth and includes trans-men and trans-women (whether or not they have undergone sex reassignment surgery or hormone therapy or laser therapy etc.), gender-queers and a number of socio-cultural identities such as — kinnars, hijras, aravanis, jogtas etc. A transgender person should have the option to choose either ‘man’, ‘woman’ or ‘transgender’ as well as have the right to choose any of the options independent of surgery/ hormones.

It is plain for anyone to see that from a Bill that recognizes the right to bodily integrity of any person to self identify their gender, irrespective of medical interventions, it has regressed to a Bill that relies heavily on biological determinism. It is tragic that the MSJE is trapped in their understanding of what our bodies look like.

If trans people are to be treated equally and without discrimination, we should be allowed the same legal process that is allowed to non trans people to change their identity. And if non trans people do not go to the District Magistrate and a Screening Committee which certifies their change in name, we should not be asked to do so either.

RECOGNITION OF IDENTITY OF TRANS-PERSONS

After stating that a person recognised as transgender shall have a right to self-perceived gender identity, in direct contradiction to this statement and the Supreme Court NALSA judgement, the Bill 2016 says —

5. A transgender person may make an application to the District Magistrate for issuing a certificate of identity as a transgender person, in such form and manner, and accompanied with such documents, as may be prescribed:

Provided that in the case of a minor child, such application shall be made by a parent or guardian of such child.

6. (1) On the receipt of an application under section 5, the District Magistrate shall refer such application to the District Screening Committee to be constituted by the appropriate mGovernment for the purpose of recognition of transgender persons.

6. (2) The District Screening Committee referred to in sub-section (1) shall comprise—

(a) the Chief Medical Officer;

(b) District Social Welfare Officer;

(c) a Psychologist or Psychiatrist;

(d) a representative of transgender community; and

(e) an officer of the appropriate Government to be nominated by that Government.

7. (1) The District Magistrate shall issue to the applicant under section 5 a certificate of identity as transgender person on the basis of the recommendations made by the District Screening Committee in such form and manner, within such indicating the gender of such person as transgender.

When I changed my legal gender markers, I had to get a psychiatric certificate, surgery certificate, publish in two newspapers with a legal affidavit stating my intention of changing my name and gender. All documents including passport could be changed with these documents.

When a non trans person changes his/her name, you have to advertise in two newspapers with a legal affidavit.

So now, with this Bill, the MSJE recommends that trans people go to the district magistrate with ‘prescribed documents” [they haven’t disclosed what the prescribed documents are], who will then refer us to a district screening committee to certify that we are who we say we are.

See what they did here? Welcome to a bureaucratic process that is in direct violation of article 14 and 15 of the Constitution and the Supreme Court judgment. Article 14 says “Equality before law- The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India “

Article 15 says that “the state shall not discriminate against only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them”.

So, if trans people are to be treated equally and without discrimination, we should be allowed the same legal process that is allowed to non trans people to change their identity. And if non trans people do not go to the District Magistrate and a Screening Committee which certifies their change in name, we should not be asked to do so either.

WELFARE SCHEMES

The Bill fails to name any welfare schemes for trans people and in very vague terms says , “The appropriate Government shall take such measures as may be necessary to protect the rights and interests of the transgender person, and facilitate their access to welfare schemes framed by that Government.”

The charitable Ministry however, does want to “ take steps for the rescue, protection and rehabilitation of transgender persons to address the needs of such person.”

Many recommendations sent to the earlier Bill by trans groups demanded for a change from the language of rehabilitation to a language of rights. Clearly, the Ministry was snoozing through it all.

At this point, I would say, the only “rescue, protection and rehabilitation” we need, is from this Bill.

CHAPTER V

OBLIGATION OF ESTABLISHMENTS AND OTHER PERSON

It says that no establishment shall discriminate against any transgender person in any matter relating to employment including, but not limited to, recruitment, promotion and other related issues. They have also set up a redressal system —

Every establishment consisting of one hundred or more persons shall designate a person to be a complaint officer to deal with the complaints relating to violation of the provisions of this Act.

Establishment is defined as – “establishment” means—

(i) any body or authority established by or under a Central Act or a State Act or an authority or a body owned or controlled or aided by the Government or a local authority, or a Government company as defined in section 2 of the Companies Act, 2013, and includes a Department of the Government; or

(ii) any company or body corporate or association or body of individuals, firm, cooperative or other society, association, trust, agency, institution;

In comparison to this, Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 has broad definitions of employee, workplace and specifies that women should compulsorily head workplace harassment committees. Local complaints committee can be approached by women working in organisations under 10 people, unorganised sector workers including domestic workers.

Clearly, the MSJE has not visited the garment factories of Tiruppur, or urban settlements where trans people do unorganised sector labour and are ignorant about the number of trans men who work as cab drivers, unorganised sector labour , or even NGOs with staff of less than 100 people!

We know that most young trans people leave their given families due to the violence we face and form alternate families of our choice. The matrilineal hijra family is one such support system. Imagine if every trans mother, who has no recourse/access to the legal system has to fight for custody battles for her daughter/s?

Again there is discrimination in the process of addressing discrimination between women and trans persons. Why couldn’t the definition of workspace for an anti-discrimination clause not be adopted from Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 which has put in place a very comprehensive definition of workspace and a process for those who are organized and unorganised workers as mentioned above?

13 (1) No transgender person shall be separated from parents or immediate family on the ground of being a transgender, except on an order of a competent court, in the interest of such person.

The Transgender Persons [Protection of Rights] Bill 2016 also says that “ Where any parent or a member of his immediate family is unable to take care of a transgender, the competent court shall by an order direct such person to be placed in a rehabilitation centre”.

The earlier MSJE draft bill of 2015 which was much more progressive in comparison reads-

13 (1) No child who is a transgender shall be separated from his or her parents on grounds of being a transgender except on an order of competent Court, if required in the best interest of the child.

Right to Home and Family

9 (2) Where the immediate family is unable to care for a transgender child, the competent Court shall make every effort to place such child within his or her extended family, or within the community in a family setting.

Explanation—‘Family’ means a group of people related by blood, marriage or adoption to the Transgender Person

So “child” becomes “person” in the latest bill and a broad definition of family which recognized adoptive families is done away with.

This is a direct attack on the hijra family system and the right of trans people to live with family/lovers of their choice. We know that most young trans people leave their given families due to the violence we face and form alternate families of our choice. The matrilineal hijra family is one such support system. Imagine if every trans mother, who has no recourse/access to the legal system has to fight for custody battles for her daughter/s? This will also be used against trans men and their lovers who leave their homes. This is in direct violation of the constitutional principles of right to equality, liberty and fraternity.

CHAPTER VI

EDUCATION, SOCIAL SECURITY AND HEALTH OF TRANSGENDER PERSON

The earlier Bill , 2015 mentioned “sex reassignment surgery, free of cost” became “(b) to provide for medical care facility including sex reassignment surgery” in the Bill of 2016. Nothing for free, then? Or even subsidized?

Dear MSJE, nobody “entices” anyone to beg. It is out of lack of employment opportunities due to social/ physical disabilities, poverty, structural exclusions that people beg. This will be an additional section that will be potentially used to criminalise trans women who beg on the streets and their trans gurus/mothers.

CHAPTER VIII

OFFENCES AND PENALTIES

a. compels or entices a transgender person to indulge in the act of begging or other similar forms of forced or bonded labour public purposes imposed by Government;

In November 2014, many trans women in Bangalore were randomly picked up from public places and illegally detained in the infamous “Beggar’s Colony”, a “rehabilitation” centre for beggars where unnatural deaths and deplorable living conditions have been reported. They were taken under the Karnataka Prohibition of Beggary Act, 1975 [which interestingly, exempts “religious mendicants” who beg from criminalization].

Dear MSJE, nobody “entices” anyone to beg. It is out of lack of employment opportunities due to social/ physical disabilities, poverty, structural exclusions that people beg. This will be an additional section that will be potentially used to criminalise trans women who beg on the streets and their trans gurus/mothers.

A new section on offenses has thus been added, but only to potentially criminalise already vulnerable trans families. News reports which said that there would be protection in the re-drafted Bill against atrocities committed against trans people such as fording trans people to leave a village/residence or forcibly removing clothes and parading naked have been completely done away with. The Bill in effect provides negligible protection for trans people against various hate crimes, atrocities and offenses.

Important provisions from earlier version of Bill that are missing now

Necessary amendments in IPC to cover the cases of sexual assault on Transgender Persons
Those Transgender Persons who by birth do not belong to Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe may be declared as Backward Class and be entitled for reservation under the existing ceiling of OBC category. Provided that those Transgender Persons who by birth belong to Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe would be entitled for reservation under their respective categories as per the existing Rules. Provided that Transgender Persons are not to be prevented from competing for seats which are not reserved for them.
Criminal and disciplinary action against delinquent police official in cases of violation of human rights of Transgender Persons
Government should provide scholarship/entitlements, fee-waiver, free textbooks, free hostel accommodation and other facilities at subsidized rates for students belonging to this group.
All the educational institutions/universities should establish an anti-discrimination cell to monitor any form of discrimination against the transgender community.
The Appropriate Government and local authorities shall ensure participation of Transgender Persons in adult education and continuing education programmes on an equal basis with others.

An amount of 15 crore rupees has been allocated as budgetary expenditure for the transgender scheme. I request the Indian government to get all trans people the psychotropic substance that the people who drafted this Bill were on, so that we can also be deluded to think that this Bill is for our protection and not our prosecution.

This article originally appeared with the title “Is this the Transgender Persons “Prohibition of Rights” Bill 2016?” in Dalit Camera and has been republished with consent of the author and website.

Media Release: Reel Desires, CIQFF 2016

Orinam — Fri, 22 Jul 2016 06:47:27 +0000

Venue: Goethe-Institut Chennai | Max Mueller Bhavan, 4 Rutland Gate 5th Street, Nungambakkam, Chennai

Dates:
July 29: Friday 6 pm – 9 pm (3 hours)
July 30: Saturday 3 pm – 9 pm (6 hours)
July 31: Sunday 3 pm – 9 pm (6 hours)

Information: 98415-57983, chennaiintlqueerfilmfest@gmail.com and website ciqff.org

A collection of Chennai-based collectives and NGOs working on gender and sexuality, in partnership with Goethe-Institut Chennai | Max Mueller Bhavan brings you Reel Desires: Chennai International Queer Film Festival, July 29-31, 2016. Reel Desires is a three-day series of feature films, shorts, and documentaries showcasing sexuality and gender diversity issues. The 26 films selected for this year span eight countries, and include shorts, documentaries and feature length films. They collectively chronicle the global struggle for rights of lesbian, gay, bi and transgender people, explore individual and collective journeys that cross physical and metaphorical borders, and reflect the universality and specificity of LGBT lives across space and time.

The principal organisers are Orinam, a local collective that has been working since 2003 to end discrimination and provide social and support spaces for the LGBTQI communities in Chennai, Goethe-Institut and several community groups and NGOs including Nirangal, RIOV, SAATHII, and East-West Center for Counseling.

Highlights include Hansal Mehta’s acclaimed feature Aligarh, a depiction of the life of Prof Siras, who succumbed to homophobia at the university where he was teaching. Shorts from Germany’s Berlinale andDresden film festivals will also be screened at Reel Desires.

This year, Reel Desires, is pleased to partner with British Council in presenting a selection of shorts from fiveFilms4freedom, the world’s first global, digital LGBT film festival. fiveFilms4freedom is selection of audience favourites from BFI Flare, London’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Film Festival, and are being screened in select cities, including Chennai.

Besides films, Reel Desires will also feature dance performances by members of the community Ponni, Anjali and Taejha Singh, and a panel discussion on Ending Gender-and Sexuality-based Violence.

Reel Desires is a reminder of our common humanity that transcends boundaries of sexuality, gender identity and culture.

Media are invited to kindly preview and/or review the event. For more information, including content for curtain-raisers, hi-res images, and interviews with filmmakers, contact chennaiintlqueerfilmfest@gmail.com, text 98415-57983 and visit website ciqff.org