Pride and Prejudice

It has been 3 years since the Supreme Court read down section 377 and 75 years since Indian independence. So, let’s see how free queer people are when it comes to finding a home. In this episode of Pride and Prejudice, our reporter Suryatapa Mukherjee spoke to Raju Behara, Ritushree Panigrahi and Kushal Roy. They speak about their struggles with finding a safe accommodation where they can truly be themselves, and also the transformational joy that finding a home can bring.

Raju is a non-binary person and they write for a Pharma company. They also work as a peer support provider with Safe Access and as an independent researcher with the Queer Judgements Project. Ritushree is a trans woman who co-founded the Outcast Collective, a Diversity and Inclusion consulting firm, and she is also a stand-up comedian. Kushal, a cis gay man, is an award-winning mental health advocate, an LGBTQ+ activist and he works a corporate day job. 

Kochi Metro's sad track record of keeping promise of dignity to transpersons 
Living with Dignity: Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity-Based Human Rights Violations in Housing, Work, and Public Spaces in India 
Is ‘unity in diversity’ a farce when it comes to housing in India? – The Leaflet
Kushal’s tweets

See sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information.

In this episode of Pride & Prejudice, we are looking at Queer Affirmative Counselling Practices or QACP. QACP goes beyond mere acceptance of queerness in people going for therapy. It is about questioning existing therapy practices through a queer lens and expanding the possibilities of how therapy can serve a queer client. 

Our reporter Suryatapa Mukherjee spoke to Shruti Chakravarty, the Chief Advisor at Mariwala Health Initiative and faculty of their QACP training course. She also spoke to co-founders of Guftagu Therapy Aryan Somaiya and Sadaf Vidha who practice Queer Affirmative Counselling. We look at how this approach helps those who go to queer-affirmative therapists, how QACP came about in the first place and its limitations. 

References:

The Queer Affirmative Counselling Practice (QACP), Mariwala Health Initiative
Guftagu Counseling and Psychotherapy Services  
Training for healthcare students and professionals | TheMindClan.com x Guftagu Therapy

See sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information.

The World Health Organisation defines gender incongruence as a marked and persistent inconguence between an individual’s experienced gender and the assigned sex. One of the ways to alleviate gender incongruence is through gender affirmative care. It can include a single or a combination of social, psychological or medical interventions. The medical interventions could include hormone replacement therapy, or surgeries. These medical interventions are very expensive, and often out of reach for transgender persons.

This May, the Maharashtra government announced that gender affirmative surgeries for transgender persons will be provided free of cost in government faciltiies. Maharashtra is one of the many states including Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Rajasthan among others to announce schemes for medical facilities of transgender persons.

In this episode, Cherish Mundhra spoke to Maya Awasthi, and her colleague Sara Ranthambe to understand the various barriers faced by the community in accessing these medical interventions. Both are from Tweet foundation that works with transgender persons. 

References

Transgender Indians Continue To Face Multiple Barriers To Gender Affirmation Surgery
Gender incongruence and transgender health in the ICD
Standards of Care
National Legal Ser.Auth vs Union Of India & Ors on 15 April, 2014
THE TRANSGENDER people (PROTECTION OF RIGHTS) ACT, 2019 ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS
Should Gender Reassignment Surgery be Publicly Funded? - PMC
DRAFT ODISHA STATE TRANSGENDER people POLICY 2021
National Portal For Transgender people
How Kerala is A Long Way Off In Gender Affirmative Healthcare For Trans people - BehanBox
Another transgender person dies by suicide in Kochi, fourth such case this year
Suicide and Suicidal Behaviour among Transgender people - PMC

See sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information.

Samuho is a queer-feminist theatre troupe based in Kolkata. After watching their play Atho Hidimba Kotha, Pride and Prejudice host Suryatapa Mukherjee speaks to its members. Samuho’s plays are written from the perspective of the marginalised, with an anti-casteist, feminist and queer lens. This particular play tells the story of Hidimba, Bheem’s ‘demon’ wife in Mahabharata. In their performance, the cast made of women and non-binary actors play characters irrespective of gender. 

In this episode, we hear from Titas Dutta, founder-member and director who plays Hidimba; Nabadeepa Ghosh, founder-member who plays Bheem; Sudakshina Chowdhury, founder-member who plays Kunti; and Adrij Basu who has recently joined the group. 

Adityanath's 2014 Article Equating Women With Demons Comes Back to Haunt Him | The Wire
Make Your Own Neutral Mask | Jacques Lecoq 

See sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information.

In this episode of Pride and Prejudice, hosts Menaka Rao and Suryatapa Mukherjee discuss how the certainty of male-female binary affects the way science is done, with Sayantan Datta. Sayantan is a queer-trans science journalist and communicator who writes for a feminist multimedia science collective, Life of Science. They also teach writing and communication at Krea University, in Andhra Pradesh.

This episode was originally published on another Suno India show, Science & Us, as one of a two-part series on how gendered understanding of science affects the way research is conducted. This episode is being republished for Pride and Prejudice. 

See sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information.

In this episode of Pride and Prejudice, host Suryatapa Mukherjee speaks to screenwriter Suman Adhikary who co-wrote Badhaai Do with Akshat Ghildial and director Harshavardhan Kulkarni. They explore how the characters came to life, what were the thoughts behind the scenes and how to make LGBTQ+ films relatable. 

This is a follow-up on our previous episode where the host watches and reacts to the film with a fellow queer person as they wondered what went on behind the scenes. 

See sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information.

Join us in this episode of Pride and Prejudice, as host Suryatapa Mukherjee watches Badhaai Do with Nikhil. Nikhil is doing their PhD in German Cinema at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. 

Since reading down of IPC Sec 377 in 2018, there has been at least one big-budget LGBTQ+ Bollywood film released each year. But do these films actually represent us? Let’s find out how the latest, Badhaai Do fares.
This episode has spoilers so we would recommend watching the film first. 

See sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information.

A class 10 student of a Greater Faridabad private school died by suicide on 24th February. In his suicide note he wrote that his school was responsible for his death. His mother said that he was sexually harrassed by other students over his sexuality, while he struggled with studies due to dyslexia. Instead of helping him, his mother alleges that school authorities harassed him for complaining. The principal was arrested and has been granted bail by the court since, while investigations continue. 

On this episode of Pride and Prejudice, host Suryatapa Mukherjee spoke to Shivakumar and Tejaswi. Shivakumar is the co-founder of Nestam, an LGBTQ+ support group in Visakhapatnam which conducts workshops in schools to make them a safe space. Tejaswi is a digital editor at Gaysi Family and they are neurodivergent like the boy who died. They share their experiences with bullying, the role of teachers and the solutions we need to pursue.

School student's suicide in Faridabad: SIT formed to probe case | Indian Express
An Exploratory Study of Discriminations based on Non-Normative Genders and Sexualities | TISS, 2019
Inclusion of Transgender Children in School Education | NCERT Manual
How a Trans-Inclusive Manual for School Teachers Turned Controversial in India | Autostraddle 

See sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information.

For this month of love, we are bringing you a two-part Valentine’s Special miniseries where host Suryatapa Mukherjee speaks to queer couples about their journey.

In this episode of Pride and Prejudice, we hear from Diya and Diban Mondol who grew up in the same Kolkata neighbourhood and ran away together after falling in love. Diban is a trans man and Diya is a cis woman. They talk about crashing with trans people they never met before, finding queer community in Jadavpur, and building a home in the city with no family support. 

See sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information.

For this month of love, we are bringing you a two-part Valentine’s Special miniseries where host Suryatapa Mukherjee speaks to queer couples about their journey.
In this episode of Pride and Prejudice, we hear from Dr Zahid Shafi Ansari and Ranjan Koul, a gay couple in their 50’s living in Delhi with their six cats. Ranjan is a Kashmiri Pandit who grew up in the Valley while Zahid grew up in Saudi Arabia.

This is a story of what it was like to be gay in the 80’s, the queer icons they looked up to, the history they witnessed before their eyes. And of course, it’s a story about finding love and peace. 

Show notes:

Reading 'Same Sex Love In India' as historian Saleem Kidwai passes | Pride and Prejudice 
Furore over a film - Frontline’s 1998 article on Shiv Sena’s campaign against ‘Fire’

See sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information.