Introduction: Across India, ordinary people who are straight/cisgender allies, including friends, family, classmates, teachers and colleagues, are taking steps to enhance the quality of life of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans* or intersex (LGBTI) person/people in their lives.

These allies are united with us in the fight for equality. In this spirit, and in connection with the fifth year of Chennai Pride, we are delighted to launch Catalysts for Inclusion: The Orinam Ally Video Contest to explore the narratives of our allies who support the cause of LGBTI rights.

If this sounds like you or someone you know, then we want to see you in action! If you haven’t done this before, check out some basic tips on making a video here.

Theme of the contest: Allies supporting LGBT rights

Duration of the Video: A maximum of 5 (five) minutes

Categories: The videos may fall in one or more of the following categories –

➢ Stories of how you, as an individual, group of friends/colleagues, or family, responded to an LGBTI classmate, colleague or family member coming out, and/or helped create a safe space on campus, at your workplace or even at home

➢ Non-LGBTI organizations in India that have made a difference to lives of LGBTI people.

➢ Music, art, photography, poetry, and prose strung into a video that can inspire others to become allies.

Submission: You may submit your video as a password-protected downloadable file (avi, mov, mpg) via vimeo, dropbox or wetransfer. Alternately you can mail/courier us a CD/DVD. For the address or to send us your link, email chennaiintlqueerfilmfest@gmail.com In your mail, please mention ‘Orinam Ally Video Contest’

Language and subtitling: The dialogue, speech, text and/or lyrics may be in any Indian language, including English. We ask that you subtitle in English, as needed.

Who can apply: Straight/cisgender allies based primarily in India (or diaspora of Indian origin): you may be a classmate, friend, colleague, parent, sibling or other relative of a lesbian, gay, bi, trans* or intersex person

Last Date for Submission: On or before 6.00 pm (IST), Sunday, June 30, 2013.

Announcement of winning videos: A panel will review submissions and select a group of no more than six finalists. All will be featured at Reel Desires 2013, the Chennai International Queer Film Festival to be held July 11-13, 2013, and the audience will select the best. The winner and runners up will subsequently be posted on http://Orinam.net and http://Chennaiintlqueerfilmfest.blogspot.com. A cash prize will be awarded to the winner.

Have an idea? Not sure how to proceed?

Check out our blog post with resources and tips on video making. It is easy, we swear.

Information resources for filmmakers

Still have questions? Need help? We are here for you.
Feel free to contact us

• You can contribute original photos, animations, videos, graphs, maps, audio files related to Tamil and Tamils and win prizes.
• People from all over the world can participate
• The rules are simple and prizes are attractive (850 USD in total!)
• Winners will also be awarded wiki certificates

To know more about the contest, contest rules, participation guidelines, contest FAQs and prizes, visit Wikipedia contest pages.

• வலைவாசல்: ஊடகப் போட்டி
• Tamil Wikipedia: Media Contest
• Facebook page

This is also a great opportunity for the Tamil LGBT community!

Tamil wiki articles related to LGBT topics are currently illustrated with images of LGBT people from non-Tamil ethnicity and background.

• நங்கை (Lesbian): Current image has two Caucasian females
• நம்பி (Gay): Currently no image available

It will be powerful and the articles will easily connect with the readers if they were illustrated with images of LGBT Tamils.

Knowing the reach of Wikipedia, this is also an unique opportunity to counter the biased, anti-LGBT argument that “LGBT folks don’t exist in Indian culture.”

These are just few examples. Tamil Wikipedia is looking for all kinds of images: Transgenders, Bisexuals, Hijras, Kothis and images from other Queer communities, Pride parades, Same-sex marriages and many more.

Please participate and spread the word. Please share this link with your friends and families and invite them to participate as well.

Together we can shape the Tamil cyber space!

Images and links: Tamil Wikipedia

Thanks Bala Jeyaraman for letting us know about the contest.

Dear friends,

This year for the Bangalore queer pride march (27th November), we have a photography competition. The theme for the competition is “IN PUBLIC”. it must be LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) based and the interpretation of the topic is open to the photographer. The last date for submission will be Nov 10.

The winners will be published in different magazines and also get some gifts. Kindly send in the description of the photo and your interpretation of the topic along with the picture(s).

Please email it to prithvijho@gmail.com. For any queries and further information please do not hesitate to contact me. The competition is open for people through out the world.

Please spread the word.

thank you.

Prithvi Raj,
for Bangalore Queer Pride March.