Founded | October 2014 |
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Location |
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Website | nazariyaqfrg |
Nazariya: A QueerFeminist Resource Group (Nazariya QFRG) is a non-profit queer feminist resource group [1] based out of Delhi NCR, India. The group was formed in October 2014, and has since established a South Asian presence. The organization undertakes workshops/seminars, helpline- and case-based counselling, and advocacy to affirm the rights of persons identifying as lesbian and bisexual women, and transgender persons assigned female at birth. Nazariya QFRG also works to inform queer discourse in institutions, and build linkages between queer issues, violence and livelihoods. [2] [3] [4] They focus on the intersectionality between queer, women’s and progressive left movements in India. [5]
In 2015, Nazariya QFRG supported 19-year-old Shivy by arranging legal counsel, safe shelter and passage to Delhi to challenge the illegal confinement inflicted on him by his parents in Agra. [6] [7] [8] In 2018, the organization endorsed a critique of the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018 Archived 2021-03-23 at the Wayback Machine , India, which was censured [9] by many scholars, lawyers and activists for criminalizing vulnerable individuals in the absence of adequate measures to address the factors that make persons vulnerable to trafficking in the first place.
The word Nazariya means "a way of seeing" or "a perspective". This name reflects the group's mission to make marginalized perspectives heard, in order to counter the toxic cultural and societal "hegemony of heteronormativity".[ citation needed ]
The group aims to sensitize groups and individuals working on issues of gender-based violence, education, health and livelihoods from a lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LBT) perspective. They support this work through training, research, advocacy, evaluations and capacity building. Nazariya QFRG works to raise awareness of the 'lived realities' of queer people, [10] and focuses on many issues of work in India and South Asia, [11] including but not limited to HIV & AIDS awareness; sensitivity towards Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI); the criminalization of intercourse against the order of nature under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code; non-inclusion of queer individuals in violence, health and education interventions; non-inclusion of and discrimination against queer individuals in the workspace; lack of support groups in tier-II and tier-III cities, towns and rural areas in India; lack of an intersectionality approach in the discourse on identities [12] [13]
Nazariya QFRG have maintained that members of the queer community face significant familial, societal, and legal discrimination on the basis of their identity in addition to the stresses brought on by everyday life such as work, relationships, and peer pressure. [14] This additional, unique stress is known as minority stress, which is defined as the additional stress an individual experiences as a result of their status as a minority. [15] Since 2017, the resource group has been working on what mental wellbeing means for queer persons. In September and December 2017, Nazariya QFRG worked with Delhi-based SRHR NGO TARSHI on a series of free, bilingual workshops on stress management and burnout prevention for LGBT*QIA+ individuals. The workshops emphasized self-care as a feminist issue and functioned on a non-medical model with an emphasis on simple stress management techniques that can be practiced individually without any additional equipment or resources. [16]
In September, 2015 Nazariya QFRG was contacted by the National Centre for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), United States, [17] and subsequently by the teenager himself, regarding the illegal confinement and human rights violation of 19-year-old trans person Shivy. An Indian citizen who had been living in the US since age 3, Shivy who identified as a female-assigned-at-birth trans person, was brought to Agra soon after his parents discovered he had a girlfriend; in Agra, his travel documents and passport were confiscated by his parents, and he was forced to enrol in a local college. [18] [19] Shivy was under parental custody and forced to live at home with the prospect of an impending arranged marriage to an Indian man to 'fix' him. [20] [21] Shivy also used the resource group's YouTube channel to publish a video recounting his experiences. [22]
In October 2015, Nazariya QFRG arranged for legal counsel Arundhati Katju to file a Writ Petition in the Delhi High Court on behalf of Shivy for protection from harassment and his right to return to the United States. In Shivani Bhat v. National Capital Territory of Delhi & Others, [23] the Delhi High Court ruled in favour of Shivy and reaffirmed his right to self-determination, travel and education. Additionally, the court ordered, inter alia, that Shivy's parents return his travel documents so he could travel back to the US.
Shivy returned to Northern California to study neurobiology at UC-Davis after the judgment was announced. Commenting on the judgement, he said that “[the judge] basically applied the law rightfully,” and that “it’s sad that this had to be celebrated, but a lot of laws don’t get applied justly for LGBT people.” [24] Shivy now chooses to be identified by another name.
The organization runs a helpline (operational Monday to Friday 11 AM-6 PM, +91-9818151707) out of their Delhi office space. They believe in the merit of an offline or online space that caters to LBT persons describing their sexual experiences and encounters, as well as for family and friends of the LBT persons. [25]
Our Lives, Our Tales is an ongoing archival oral history project by Nazariya QFRG to document queer history and queer lived realities in India. [26] [27]
In 2018, two of the co-founders of Nazariya QFRG were involved in a bilingual short-film on the lives of Rups and Priyam, a trans man and a lesbian, their loves, desires, dating experiences, friendships and intimate relationships. [28] Ishq, Dosti and All That was screened on September 16, 2018 at the India International Centre, New Delhi.[ citation needed ]
In collaboration with Orikalankini, Nazariya offered a Gender and Sexuality Lab 13-week Teen fellowship to increase the awareness around gender and sexuality. [29] [30]
The following activists founded the group and continue to play pivotal roles in the functioning of the organization:
LGBT is an initialism that stands for "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender". It may refer to anyone who is non-heterosexual, non-heteroromantic, or non-cisgender, instead of exclusively to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. A variant, LGBTQ, adds the letter Q for those who identify as queer or are questioning their sexual or gender identity. Another variation, LGBTQ+, adds a plus sign "represents those who are part of the community, but for whom LGBTQ does not accurately capture or reflect their identity". Many further variations of the acronym exist, such as LGBT+, LGBTQIA+, and 2SLGBTQ+. The LGBT label is not universally agreed to by everyone that it is generally intended to include. The variations GLBT and GLBTQ rearrange the letters in the acronym. In use since the late 1980s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for marginalized sexualities and gender identities.
Femme is a term traditionally used to describe a lesbian woman who exhibits a feminine identity or gender presentation. While commonly viewed as a lesbian term, alternate meanings of the word also exist with some non-lesbian individuals using the word, notably some gay men and bisexuals. Some non-binary and transgender individuals also identify as lesbians using this term.
Biphobia is aversion toward bisexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being bisexual. Similarly to homophobia, it refers to hatred and prejudice specifically against those identified or perceived as being in the bisexual community. It can take the form of denial that bisexuality is a genuine sexual orientation, or of negative stereotypes about people who are bisexual. Other forms of biphobia include bisexual erasure.
Lesbian feminism is a cultural movement and critical perspective that encourages women to focus their efforts, attentions, relationships, and activities towards their fellow women rather than men, and often advocates lesbianism as the logical result of feminism. Lesbian feminism was most influential in the 1970s and early 1980s, primarily in North America and Western Europe, but began in the late 1960s and arose out of dissatisfaction with the New Left, the Campaign for Homosexual Equality, sexism within the gay liberation movement, and homophobia within popular women's movements at the time. Many of the supporters of Lesbianism were actually women involved in gay liberation who were tired of the sexism and centering of gay men within the community and lesbian women in the mainstream women's movement who were tired of the homophobia involved in it.
LGBT culture is a culture shared by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals. It is sometimes referred to as queer culture, while the term gay culture may be used to mean either "LGBT culture" or homosexual culture specifically.
The origin of the LGBT student movement can be linked to other activist movements from the mid-20th century in the United States. The Civil Rights Movement and Second-wave feminist movement were working towards equal rights for other minority groups in the United States. Though the student movement began a few years before the Stonewall riots, the riots helped to spur the student movement to take more action in the US. Despite this, the overall view of these gay liberation student organizations received minimal attention from contemporary LGBT historians. This oversight stems from the idea that the organizations were founded with haste as a result of the riots. Others historians argue that this group gives too much credit to groups that disagree with some of the basic principles of activist LGBT organizations.
Robyn Ochs is an American bisexual activist, professional speaker, and workshop leader. Her primary fields of interest are gender, sexuality, identity, and coalition building. She is the editor of the Bisexual Resource Guide, Bi Women Quarterly, and the anthology Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World. Ochs, along with Professor Herukhuti, co-edited the anthology Recognize: The Voices of Bisexual Men.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in India have expanded in the 21st century, though much of India's advancements on LGBT rights have come from the judiciary and not the legislature. Indian LGBT citizens still face social and legal difficulties not experienced by non-LGBT people.
India's LGBTQ culture has recently progressed in its cities due to the growing acceptance of the LGBTQ community in urban India in the 21st century.
Delhi Queer Pride Parade is organised by members of the Delhi Queer Pride Committee every last Sunday of November since 2008. The queer pride parade is a yearly festival to honour and celebrate lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and their supporters. The parade usually runs from Barakhamba Road to Tolstoy Marg to Jantar Mantar.
Gaylaxy is an Indian lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) magazine. The magazine is based in Kolkata.
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).
The following outline offers an overview and guide to LGBT topics.
Orinam is a non-funded, social, and activist collective that works to enhance understanding of alternate sexualities and gender identities among families, communities and society. It was founded in 2003 in Chennai under the name MovenPick and is one of the oldest collective of its kind in India. People affiliated with Orinam are from or trace their ancestry to the following geo-cultural: People of Tamil Origin from Tamil Nadu, India. Orinam provides a platform for creative expression, personal and social commentary by Queer people of Tamil Origin and of Indian Origin primarily. Orinam also acts as a local support group in Chennai for the queer community. Orinam also partners with the city-, state- and national initiatives around decriminalisation of homosexuality by amending Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code and LGBTQ rights.
Wei Tingting is a Chinese LGBTI+ and feminist activist, writer and documentary filmmaker. She is one of the Feminist Five.
Betu Singh was a lesbian rights activist, born in an Army family in Kolkata. She set up the Sangini Trust, an NGO based in Delhi under the umbrella of the Naz Foundation, in 1997 to fight for lesbian rights. The NGO works for women attracted to women and individuals dealing with their gender identity, providing emergency response services to LBT individuals facing rights violations. Sangini is the oldest non-governmental organization in India to reach out to LBT persons and one of the few registered lesbian organisations in India.
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Lesbian erasure is a form of lesbophobia that involves the tendency to ignore, remove, falsify, or reexplain evidence of lesbian women or relationships in history, academia, the news media, and other primary sources. Lesbian erasure also refers to instances wherein lesbian issues, activism, and identity is deemphasized or ignored within feminist groups or the LGBT community.