Gay Bombay

Last updated

Gay Bombay
AbbreviationGB
FormationSeptember 1998;26 years ago (1998-09)
Type Collective
Legal statusActive
Headquarters Mumbai, India
Membership
6,000+ (As of July 2009) [1]
Founder
Umang Sheth
Website gaybombay.org

Gay Bombay is an LGBTQ social organization in Mumbai, India, which promotes LGBT rights. [2] It was founded in 1998. The organization works to create an awareness of gay rights through workshops, film screenings, and parties. [3] [4] [5] [6] The organisation aims to create a safe space for the LGBT community. [7] [8]

Contents

History

Gay Bombay was founded in 1998. It is one of Mumbai's longest-running gay support groups, which has been hosting parties in different clubs since 2000. [9] [7] [10]

Activities

Gay Bombay organizes various LGBT events including dance parties, picnics, film festivals, film screenings parents meeting, trekking, cooking, speed-dating brunches, counselling sessions, meet-ups, gatherings, and discussions on topics such as HIV/AIDS and relationships. [5] [11] [10]

In July 2009, Gay Bombay organized a party to celebrate the Delhi High Court's verdict on decriminalizing homosexuality in India. [12] In 2008, the Queer Media Collective Awards was started by Gay Bombay to acknowledge and honor the media's support of the LGBT movement in India. [13]

It organizes a talent show every year, Gay Bombay Talent Show, to provide a platform for LGBT artists. [11] [14]

In May 2017, Gay Bombay paid tribute to Dominic D'Souza, India's first AIDS activist by showing a short film on Positive People, an NGO founded by D'Souza. [15]

The book Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (Be)longing in Contemporary India (2008) by Parmesh Shahani, [16] is based on characters and situations that the members of Gay Bombay experienced, reportedly to Mint . [17] [18]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pink triangle</span> Nazi concentration camp badge, later international symbol of gay pride and the gay rights movements

A pink triangle has been a symbol for the LGBT community, initially intended as a badge of shame, but later reappropriated as a positive symbol of self-identity. In Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, it began as one of the Nazi concentration camp badges, distinguishing those imprisoned because they had been identified by authorities as gay men or trans women. In the 1970s, it was revived as a symbol of protest against homophobia, and has since been adopted by the larger LGBT community as a popular symbol of LGBT pride and the LGBT movements and queer liberation movements.

Queer studies, sexual diversity studies, or LGBTQ studies is the study of topics relating to sexual orientation and gender identity usually focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender dysphoric, asexual, queer, questioning, and intersex people and cultures.

"Gay agenda" or "homosexual agenda" is a pejorative term used by sectors of the Christian religious right as a disparaging way to describe the advocacy of cultural acceptance and normalization of non-heterosexual sexual orientations and relationships. The term originated among social conservatives in the United States and has been adopted in nations with active anti-LGBT movements such as Hungary and Uganda.

Section 377 is a British colonial penal code that criminalized all sexual acts "against the order of nature". The law was used to prosecute people engaging in oral and anal sex along with homosexual activity. As per a Supreme Court Judgement since 2018, the Indian Penal Code Section 377 is used to convict non-consensual sexual activities among homosexuals with a minimum of ten years’ imprisonment extended to life imprisonment. It has been used to criminalize third gender people, such as the apwint in Myanmar. In 2018, then British Prime Minister Theresa May acknowledged how the legacies of such British colonial anti-sodomy laws continue to persist today in the form of discrimination, violence, and even death.

Homosexuality in India is socially permitted by most of the traditional native philosophies of the nation, and legal rights continue to be advanced in mainstream politics and regional politics. Homosexual cohabitation is also legally permitted and comes with some legal protections and rights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashok Row Kavi</span> Indian journalist and LGBT rights activist

Ashok Row Kavi is an Indian journalist and LGBT rights activist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sridhar Rangayan</span> Indian filmmaker (born 1962)

Sridhar Rangayan is an Indian filmmaker who has made films with special focus on queer subjects. His queer films, The Pink Mirror, Yours Emotionally, 68 Pages, Purple Skies, Breaking Free & Evening Shadows have been considered groundbreaking because of their realistic and sympathetic portrayal of the largely closeted Indian gay community. His film The Pink Mirror remains banned in India by the Indian Censor Board because of its homosexual content.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LGBTQ culture in India</span>

India has a long and ancient tradition of culture associated with the LGBTQ community, with many aspects that differ markedly from modern liberal western culture.

Humsafar Trust is an NGO in Mumbai that promotes LGBT rights. Founded by Ashok Row Kavi, Suhail Abbasi, and Sridhar Rangayan in 1994, it is one of the largest and most active of such organisations in India. It provides counselling, advocacy and healthcare to LGBT communities and has helped reduce violence, discrimination and stigma against them. Humsafar Trust is the convenor member of Integrated Network for Sexual Minorities (INFOSEM).

The modern South Korean LGBT rights movement arose in the 1990s, with several small organizations seeking to combat sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination.

This is a timeline of notable events in the history of non-heterosexual conforming people of South Asian ancestry, who may identify as LGBTIQGNC, men who have sex with men, or related culturally-specific identities such as Hijra, Aravani, Thirunangaigal, Khwajasara, Kothi, Thirunambigal, Jogappa, Jogatha, or Shiva Shakti. The recorded history traces back at least two millennia.

Chennai has LGBTQIA cultures that are diverse concerning- 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).

AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan was the first HIV/AIDS activist movement in India founded in 1988 in New Delhi. The group received popular recognition with the publication of its pioneering report "Less than Gay" in 1991. Through this report, ABVA advocated for civil rights of LGBTQ people to include same sex marriage, LGBT parenting, and the decriminalization of homosexuality through the repeal of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of LGBTQ topics</span> Overview of and topical guide to LGBTQ topics

The following outline offers an overview and guide to LGBTQ topics:

Shobhna S. Kumar, an Indian female entrepreneur, established Queer Ink, India’s first online bookstore for the queer community. What started as an online bookstore has now evolved into an organisation that publishes works by queer authors, offers writing mentorship and publication guidance to queer authors, creates documentaries about queer lives and conducts events by and for the queer community.

LABIA is an organization for queer and transgender people in Mumbai, India. It was founded in 1995 as Stree Sangam, and is often cited as a significant organization in the history of LGBTQ organizing in India.

<i>Queeristan</i> 2020 book written by Parmesh Shahani

Queeristan is a book written by Parmesh Shahani. The book was published in 17 August 2020 by Westland Books.

Parmesh Shahani is an Indian author and the head of Godrej India Cultural Lab.

References

  1. Sheth, Niraj; Bellman, Eric (3 July 2009). "Indian Court Strikes Down Homosexuality Ban". The Wall Street Journal .
  2. Singh, Varun (2 November 2009). "'My son is gay and I'm proud to be his mom'". Mid-Day .[ permanent dead link ]
  3. Ahmed, Zubair (19 June 2003). "Gay Bombay comes out". BBC News .
  4. Nambiar, Sridevi (5 October 2016). "A Colourful LGBTQ Guide To Mumbai". Theculturetrip.com.
  5. 1 2 Fernandez, Bina (27 February 2000). Humjinsi: A Resource Book on Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Rights in India. India Centre for Human Rights and Law, 2002. p. 191. OCLC   60786252.
  6. "The Inside Story: Speed Dating With Gay Bombay". Yahoo! News . 8 December 2015.
  7. 1 2 Singh, Varun (14 June 2016). "Mumbai LGBT parties to go on as tribute to Orlando victims". Mid-Day .
  8. "New Statesman". Vol. 138, no. 4943–4955. New Statesman, Limited, 2009. 2009. p. 18.
  9. Ratnam, Dhamini (17 June 2016). "The party must go on". Livemint.
  10. 1 2 Ladha, Shubham (7 November 2018). "THE HOTSPOTS OF INDIA'S QUEER NIGHTLIFE". Verve (Indian magazine).
  11. 1 2 Joseph, Krupa (5 October 2017). "So You Think You Have Talent? Check Out The 2017 Gay Bombay Talent Show!". Gaysi Family. Archived from the original on 26 September 2021. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  12. "A night of jalebis and rainbow hats". The Times of India . 4 July 2009.
  13. "The year we really came out". Livemint. 29 December 2008.
  14. "The Gay Bombay Talent Show". Yahoo! News . 9 November 2015.
  15. Joshi, Premaja (15 May 2017). "Gay Bombay pays tribute to India's first AIDS activist on his 25th death anniversary". Hindustan Times .
  16. Shahani, Parmesh (2008). Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (Be)longing in Contemporary India. SAGE Publications. ISBN   9788132100140.
  17. Kulshrestha, Taneesha (29 April 2008). "Book Review: Gay Bombay". Livemint.
  18. Masani, Zareer (25 January 2016). "GAY BOMBAY: HOW HAS INDIA'S SEXUAL LANDSCAPE CHANGED?". The Independent .

a Huggins19. Ganguly, Dibeyendu: (1 Dec,8 2015) For HR Chiefs, LGBT is the New Diversity Frontier, The Economic Times Archived 20 February 2019 at the Wayback Machine

Further reading