Thiruvananthapuram: Valentine’s Day is a day of love for sexual min-orities too. Designed to send out this message, Valentine’s Day cards from the LGBT organisation Queerhythm seem timely in a climate of atrocities against sexual and gender minorities. However, it is not to protest against the recent incidents in Thiruvananthapuram that the cards were made, says the NGO’s founder Prijith P.K.
It was designed by an ally of LGBT movement, artist Chinthu Elgin. A second-year student at the Fine Arts College in Thiruvananthapuram, he was inspired to support the cause after hearing a speech by activist and transgender person Syama Prabha. At that time, Chinthu had started wearing an anklet. It was an experiment to gauge if people would isolate him. Instead, the anklet was a talking point with both men and women.
“I found them to be very interesting. They are very special. They would address me as a brother and speak to me with a lot of empathy. They have even told me that I could tell them if I can ask them any help. I can talk about anything under the sun, and they would not mind. They purposely will not cause any trouble,” he says.
While the cards are meant for sexual minorities, they hope that the mainstream cis-gender straight people take notice of the message that it sends out: that same-sex love is normal.
