LGBT celebrates milestone

As part of Chennai LGBT Pride ’09, The Shakti Centre and Human Rights Watch (New York) jointly organised a panel discussion on Colonial Origins and Everyday Impacts of Sodomy Laws, followed by a cultural programme. “For those of you who think Section 377 doesn’t affect you, I want to remind you that from the very first person arrested under the act, way back during British rule, the ‘sodomy law’ has been misused by lawmakers and society to target the LGBT community,” said lawyer and human rights activist Alok Gupta, who presented his report titled This Alien Legacy: The origins of ‘Sodomy’ laws in British Colonialism.

The panel also included LGBT rights activist Sunil Menon, lawyer and human rights activists Arvind Narrain and Sudha Ramalingam, transgender rights’ activist Kalki, theatre activist Mangai, mental health counsellor Magdalene Jeyaratnam, musician and human rights activist Sumathi and Dipika Nath from Human Rights Watch, New York. The session was thought provoking, and several meaningful action areas were proposed by the panellists. “The need of the hour is to start negotiating with the state government of Tamil Nadu,” said Sudha Ramalingam. Referring to a video which was played earlier where the CM’s daughter, politician Kanimozhi expressed her support for the LGBT community, Sudha reasoned, “If we can get them to agree at the state level, we can get to the next step and address the issue at a national level.” Releasing a calendar to raise funds for Sahodaran, Sunil Menon said, “Since this is Pride month, it made sense to start the calendar from July. It’s a one-and-a-half-years’ calendar and it’s filled with hot men.” He gave the first copy to Mr Bryan Dalton (US Consul, Visa section) and his partner Mr Anandaroopa.