It’s International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia and activists in the city are hard at work. Despite elections taking the spotlight — Vikrant Prasanna, LGBT activist and founder of Chennai Dost, and other team members have been highlighting the issue through social media. He says, “We’ve been passing out pamphlets at polling booths and even forwarding flyers through Whatsapp so we can get support from our straight allies. We hope to target non-metropolitan cities like Coimbatore and Madurai more than Chennai, since we believe enough attention isn’t paid to such cities.”
Some disagree with the fact that homophobia isn’t really a phobia — but prejudice and ignorance. Vikrant explains, “I think phobia here means much more than just fear. It is dislike of not wanting to learn or know, and even the fear of associating with the LGBT community. This is what we’re trying to change.”
Let’s hope for a more educated and liberal future, and fewer reasons for this day to exist as the years go by!
