*Breaking the Silence - Sexual Minorities Come Out in Kerala*
*13th November 2008 (Thursday), Calicut* Anything connected with sex is suppressed in Kerala. Morality has become an obsession with Kerala's societal attitude, cutting across the divides of class, gender, caste and religion. While in a majority of countries women can work and live as singles and contribute to social production, in Kerala, such people are largely isolated and kept aloof from the public sphere. The question of sexual rights occupies limited spaces of socio-political discourse in Kerala. The mainstream political parties here are yet to identify or acknowledge the politics of queer activism. We seem to have reached a point that no political movement can move ahead unless the conspiracy of silence about sexuality is broken. The politics of sexuality cannot wait till all the problems related with globalization and unemployment are solved forever. We need to talk about sexual rights as we do about any other fundamental rights. Kerala is one of the very few states in India where the CPI(M) has been most active over the years. It would be interesting to juxtapose this with the fact that in September 2003, All India Democratic Women's Association (the women's fraction of CPI(M)) had sent a note to the Indian Govt. to scrap IPC 377. But one doesn't seem to have reached its own cadres in Kerala even after 5 years. Section 377 of IPC is challenged in the Delhi High Court and the final hearings are on now. Large scale sexual minority mobilizations took places in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata in the recent past demanding the repeal of IPC 377. This brought about enormous media coverage all over India but not in Kerala. While the Kerala Government is extremely keen reaching out to homosexual/bisexual men to use them for HIV prevention initiatives, one can clearly notice that there is absolute disregard for their human rights. Hijras are visible and tolerated in most parts of India. Meanwhile, they are scared even to visit Kerala for a short-time. Most of the Keralite hijras migrate and live in Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai and other parts of India. They are forced to present themselves in male attire when they visit their families in Kerala. Lesbians or gays or transgenders find it extremely difficult to have social space in Kerala. They are viewed as objects of curiosity and fun that attracts the media attention. There have been many an instances of lesbian suicides in Kerala over the years. The situation is such, that if they are to make a living, they would have to migrate to other states in India. The media mostly chooses to ignore such issues, preventing them from becoming a matter of public debate. Recent suicide of a gay couple in Ernakulam attracted very little media coverage. Most progressive groups in Kerala too ignored this. In this context, a group of sexual minority activists and supporters from different parts of Kerala (and some from Karnataka as well) met twice in the last 2 months and felt a strong need to break the continuing silence in Kerala. It was decided to organize a public event in Calicut on 13th November 2008, where a large number of sexual minorities will come out in the open and march publicly for the first time to reclaim their rightful space in the society. Mr. Sunil Babu Pant, the first sexual minority Member of Parliament in Asia has confirmed his participation in the event. The event will be organized by a coalition organizations (including FIRM, Malabar Cultural Forum-Calicut, Sahayathrika, LLAS-Kollam, Sahay-Palakkad, Sanghamithra-Thrissur, HRLN, GAIA, Vanitha Society-Calicut, Chilla-Thiruvananthapuram, ANANNIA-Thiruvananthapuram, Sex Workers Forum Kerala, Sangama, Aneka, Suraksha, Samara, Karnataka Sex workers Union and Karnataka Sexuality Minorities Forum), and the coalition would continue to advance the human rights for sexual minorities rights in Karala. We request you to support us through your participation in the event.. In Solidarity Sanjesh, Seena and Abhilash on behalf of the organizing committee For more information contact: 9995013899 9745796017 9947234562 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
