TW: Homophobia and Mental Health

In this episode, we speak to Vikas, a passionate lawyer who talks to us about their personal experiences, the LGBTQIA community in Chennai and much more. We are grateful for their honesty and for choosing to share their truth with us.

It was the first step for Petromax, Kruthika and Madhu towards learning about this community through listening. 

When we asked, what was the one thing they would like to tell our audience listening to this?

They said "There are a lot of things to tell! I want to say one thing to Queer people and One thing to Cishet people. I have to address these two groups individually. To the queer people, all I am saying is, you are valid, you are loved, you are completely normal. There is nothing wrong with you. You are completely okay. You are not alone. There are a lot of people like you. You can meet all of us. You can text us, you can find us on the internet. We are open about who we are, and we will help you. 

To the Cishet people, they said, "For people who don't know how to help, listen to us. When the people from the community say that they are going through pain or going through oppression, don't doubt it. Don't question it. Empathize with us. Take our voices, use your privilege and amplify our voice. Use your privilege, go to your Cishet spaces and make those spaces more accessible for us. When there are homophobes, talk to them, tell them their attitude is wrong and stand up to them. Don't do it because colourfultrying to save us! The world is so colourful and, there are so many diverse identities..."

Listen now to know more!