The American College, often referred to as American College, is one of the oldest colleges present in India, located in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded in 1881 by American Christian missionaries. The red-brick buildings, in the Saracenic style, blend with the natural surroundings constructed by British architect Henry Irwin.
Keshavan Venugopal, known popularly by his stage name Nedumudi Venu, is an Indian film actor from Keralam, who predominantly works in the Malayalam Cinema. Widely regarded as one of the greatest actors in Indian cinema of all time, he has acted in more than 500 films, primarily in Malayalam and also in Tamil. He has also written screenplays and has directed one film. He has won two National Film Awards and six Kerala State Film Awards for his various performances.
Santhi Soundarajan is an Indian track and field athlete. She is the winner of 12 international medals for India and around 50 medals for her home state of Tamil Nadu. Shanthi Soundarajan is the first Tamil woman to win a medal at the Asian Games. She competes in middle distance track events. She was stripped of a silver medal won at the 2006 Asian Games after failing a sex verification test which disputed her eligibility to participate in the women's competition.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) rights in Tamil Nadu are among the most progressive in India. Tamil Nadu was the first state of India to introduce a transgender welfare policy, wherein transgender individuals can access free sex reassignment surgery in government hospitals and various other benefits and rights.
Kandiah Neelakandan was a Sri Lankan Tamil lawyer and the lead partner in Neelakandan & Neelakandan. He died on 18 February 2018 when he was 70 years old.
Pathinaaru is a 2011 Tamil romantic drama film written and directed by Sabapathy Dekshinamurthy, who earlier directed films like V.I.P (1997), Punnagai Poove (2003) and A Aa E Ee (2009). It stars Shiva and Madhu Shalini in lead along with musician Darbuka Siva and television artist Abhishek in pivotal roles. The film's background score and soundtrack was composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja. After being launched in October 2008 under the title 16, the film was shot for over one year, getting finished in early 2010 only. One year after its completion, Kalaipuli S. Thanu bought the distribution rights and released the film on 28 January 2011 under his V. Creations banner. However, this movie was unsuccessful at the Box-Office. Despite that the movie did not fare well at the box office, it was remade as Jolly Boy in Kannada language.
A R Venkatachalapathy is a historian, author and translator from Tamil Nadu, India who writes and publishes in Tamil and English. Currently he is a professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS). He is noted for collecting and publishing the works of Tamil writer Pudhumaipithan.
Vishakha Singh is an Indian film actress, producer and entrepreneur.
Madurai North is a legislative assembly constituency in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
Breaking India: Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines is a book written by Rajiv Malhotra and Aravindan Neelakandan which argues that India's integrity is being undermined by the support of western institutions for the Dravidian movement and Dalit identity. It was published by Amaryllis in 2011. In 2011, this book was in the list of top 10 bestseller books in India.
R. N. Joe D'Cruz is a Tamil writer, novelist and documentary film director from Tamil Nadu, India. He won the Sahitya Akademi award in 2013 in the Tamil language category for his novel Korkai. He is the Tamil Nadu state president of Samskrita Bharati.
Chennai has LGBTQIA cultures that are diverse with respect to socio-economic class, gender, and degree of visibility and politicisation. They have historically existed in the margins, and surfaced primarily in contexts such as transgender activism and HIV prevention initiatives for men having sex with men (MSM) and trans women (TG).
One Part Woman is a Tamil novel written by Indian author Perumal Murugan. Initially published by Kalachuvadu Publications in 2010, it was later translated into English by Aniruddhan Vasudevan and published in 2013 in India by Penguin Books, and in 2018 in the US by Grove Atlantic. Set during the colonial era in the Southern state of Tamil Nadu in India, it deals with the social stigma that a married couple faces due to their childlessness, and the lengths they go to conceive.
The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election was held on 16 May 2016 for the 232 seats of the Legislative Assembly in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. AIADMK under J. Jayalalithaa won the elections and became the first ruling party to be re-elected in Tamil Nadu since 1984, though with a reduced majority. DMK won half of the seats it contested but its allies performed poorly; notably, the Indian National Congress won 16% of the seats they contested and the alliance lost due to its poor performance. The votes were counted on 19 May 2016. In the previous election in 2011, AIADMK, under the leadership of Jayalalithaa, won a simple majority and formed the government, while DMDK chief Vijayakanth served as the Leader of Opposition until January 2016. This is the last election that Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi contested, as they both died in 2016 and 2018 respectively.
Vanathi Srinivasan is a Tamil politician, lawyer and a RSS Ideologue. She currently serves as the General Secretary of Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party.
Gopi Shankar Madurai is an Indian equal rights and Indigenous rights activist. Shankar was one of the youngest, and the first openly intersex and genderqueer, candidates to contest in 2016 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election. Shankar is also the founder of Srishti Madurai Student Volunteer Collective. Shankar’s work inspired the Madras High Court to direct the Government of Tamil Nadu to order a ban on sex reassignment surgeries on intersex children. In December 2017 Shankar was elected to the Executive board of ILGA Asia.
The following list is a partially completed compilation of events considered to have a profound effect on the welfare or image of Tamil sexual minorities. The use of bold typeface indicates that the event is widely considered to be landmark:
Srishti Madurai was established on 2 September 2011 by Gopi Shankar in Madurai as the first genderqueer & LGBTQIA student volunteer group designed to target the problems of LGBTQIA+ people in non-metro cities of Tamil Nadu.
