The Quiet Violence of Language
Introduction: Not Just a Comment “We need more electricians and plumbers — and less LGBTQ graduate majors from Harvard University.” With this one sentence, Karoline Leavitt, the newly appointed White…
LGBTQIA
Pride 2025 Washington DC: A Missed Opportunity for Nonviolence
A year ago, billboards and posters across the country announced what was to be a landmark event: World Pride 2025, marking the 50th anniversary of Pride in Washington, D.C. Expectations…
The War on Trans People And What It Means in the Age of Trump
This year, Pride Month arrives at an especially dire moment for the LGBTQ+ community. Under the second Trump administration, homophobic vitriol and violence are on the rise. On Elon Musk’s…
Supporting Maligned Others Such As Trangendered Individuals
My daughter is now a school guidance counselor (sort of like a school psychologist and educator merged into one helpful school role while running programs about lying, stealing, bullying, dealing…
IMSD condemns the assassination of the world’s first openly gay Imam
“No God, gods, goddesses, prophets or saints may be invoked to justify the killing and/or terrorising of fellow human beings”. Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy (IMSD) strongly condemns the assassination…
Dispatch from Kolkata: LGBTQ Activists Face Mob Attack
In another demonstration that the fight for LGBTQ rights in India goes far beyond marriage, a dispute in a Reliance Fresh supermarket in the posh South Kolkata neighbourhood of Jodhpur…
Understanding Biology ≠ Biological Essentialism
Anyone who has critiqued, or even dared to question, the ideology of the transgender movement likely has been accused of being a “biological essentialist.” The most recent episode of this…
Be-Loved – Celebrating Pride Month through Theatre
In the scorching heat of June 2024, I, along with a lesbian couple, have been shuttling from police station to police station, all in an effort to protect their fundamental…
LGBTQIA Community and Muslims in India Treated with Hatred by Indian Prime Minister
Both the largest minority communities – LGBTQIA members said to be 80-100 millions as per reference in Supreme Court judgement on gay sex delivered in 2018 and the Muslim community…
A Political Party Contesting Just Ten Lok Sabha Seats In Maharashtra Has LGBTQIA Interests In Its Manifesto.
The Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) released its 32-paged Lok Sabha Election Manifesto on 25th April 2024. The party highlighted welfare measures for the LGBTQIA community. The amazing thing is…
Not a Word for Gays; Not a Word for Lesbians; Not a Word for Bisexuals in BJP’s Election Manifesto, 2024!
by P.S. Sahni & Shobha Aggarwal Not surprising though, but cannot be left uncommented upon. Nazi Germany exterminated gays and lesbians. Modi’s BJP is making gays, lesbians and bisexuals invisible,…
LGBTQIA Community; General Elections 2024 for the 18th Lok Sabha; and Election Manifestoes – Part-1
by P.S. Sahni & Shobha Aggarwal When ABVA (AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan) released its report, ‘Less than Gay’ in 1992 it included a 16-point Charter of Demands (Gay Manifesto) which…
Thailand Leads Southeast Asia: Parliament Approves Landmark Same-Sex Marriage Bill
Thailand’s lower house endorses historic same-sex marriage bill, paving the way for southeast Asia’s first marriage equality law amid evolving LGBTQ+ rights landscape. Legislators in Thailand’s lower house of Parliament…
Challenging Heteropatriarchy
Like any other popular movement, the radical message of feminist liberation is always at risk of being diluted by dominant ideologies. In the current conjuncture of neo-fascist resurgence, such dilution…
Why Is Social Media Choked With Misogyny And Homophobia?
Misogyny, homophobia, and transphobic rhetoric are everywhere on the internet today. This is part of a broader rightwing ascendancy and the strengthening of exclusionary ideologies all across the world. YouTube…
A Letter to Pranshu
Dear Pranshu, I didn’t know you before your suicide on November 21, 2023. I saw your Diwali reel in which you wore a saree – you looked beautiful. I don’t…
Marriage Equality Judgment not on constitutional morality: “Disappointing, But the fight will go on ….” – PUCL
The PUCL expresses its deep disappointment with respect to the verdict of the Supreme Court in `Supriyo v Union of India’ denying the right to marry to the LGBTQI community.…
Same-sex marriage judgement by Supreme Court – A Damp Squib
While rejecting the prayer for same-sex marriage the Supreme Court of India through its judgements made the following points: This Supreme Court judgement on same-sex marriage does not change the…
Feminism, Patriarchy & Equal Marriage Rights for LGBTQ – A Personal Dilemma
The Supreme Court of India is likely to pronounce judgement on the same-sex marriage petitions this week on or before 20th October 2023 as one of the judges on the…
Stop Bulldozing Uniform Civil Code Till Same-sex Marriage Issue is Debated In & Outside Parliament
The future of one hundred million LGBTQIA Indians is at stake. For the last seventy five years the Indian Parliament has evaded – nay stonewalled – debate on LGBTQIA marriage…
Same-sex Marriage Pleas in the Supreme Court of India: LGBTQIA Community at the Crossroads
The ongoing hearings on same-sex marriage petitions have resulted in a minor concession being offered to the LGBTQIA community by way of welfarist steps. A government committee would be…
Inside the Fight for LGBTQ+ Rights in Africa
The National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGLHRC) gained a historic win at the Kenyan Supreme Court on February 24, 2023. It was finally able to register as an official nongovernmental…
IMSD deplores the demonisation of sexual minorities by Kerala’s rightwing Muslims
Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy (IMSD) strongly condemns the concerted effort by the Muslim rightwing in Kerala -- including leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML),…
Demand for Same-sex Marriage Pending Since 1991 – Indian Parliament Continues to Stonewall the Debate
“Amend the Special Marriages Act to allow for marriages between people of the same sex (or between people who may be inter-sexed, or have undergone sex-change surgery, and any others).…
Asexuality- An Emerging Identity
Understanding what has commonly been viewed as dysfunctional or repressed sexuality is now coming to light, at least among youth. As per the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN), an…
“Can The LGBTQIA Community In India Trust Its Parliament?”
The Indian State never tires of pontificating and appealing to alleged Naxalites/ Maoists/ terrorists/ militants/ separatists/ freedom fighters to shun violence, come under the Indian Constitution and adopt parliamentary path.…
ABVA’s tryst with activists, lawyers & judges before, during and after its anti-sodomy law petition was filed
ABVA members wearing black T-shirts addressing the press at the Ashoka hotel, New Delhi during the Second Asia Pacific AIDS conference, November 1992 In April 1994 ABVA filed a Civil…
Why does the transgender community consider the Trans Persons Act, 2019 as the extermination of Gender Justice?
© Reuters A trans individual's fight for survival begins from their adolescence. Majority of them are relinquished by their families, denied formal schooling, and have severely confined access to…
The Transgender Community During The Pandemic: Outcomes Of Lack Of Policy, Inclusion And Affirmative Action
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused hardships among people, and even more so, for the most marginalised groups in the society. At a time when even the more privileged groups began…
Two Years after the abrogation of section 377: a sneak-peak into the Ground reality
Touted as one of the biggest milestones in the movement by the LGBTQA community for equal rights, the abrogation of section 377 of the Indian penal code in 2018 by…
Bittersweet: reflections on queer existence and emancipation
Recently, actor Samyuktha Hegde and her friends were assaulted by All India Congress Committee member and civic activist Kavitha Reddy at Bangalore’s Agara Lake. Reddy can be seen in videos…
Indian Parliament Must Apologize for Stonewalling Debate on Gay & Lesbian Issues Since Independence
By Dr. P. S. Sahni & Shobha Aggarwal The rights of people with different sexual orientations – Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual needs to be respected; all the…
What is really radical in sex/gender politics?
The political left, and much of mainstream feminism, is characterized by an analysis of how systems and institutions shape our choices, a critique of capitalist media, and a commitment to…
‘Cancel Culture’ Cannot Erase a Strong Argument
In the current squabble on the liberal/progressive/left side of the fence over so-called “cancel culture”—in which one open letter in favor of freedom of expression led to a rebuttal open…
For Peoples’ Manifesto: A Suggested LGBTQIA Perspective
At the very outset we at ABVA would like to make a simple point that the LGBTQIA community – which constitutes about 7 to 8% of the population as per…
LBGTQA Community
For those of you who don’t know the meaning of those alphabet letters, here you go: lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, queer, alternative sexually. Now, I will add that there are…
Overruling of Section 377 of IPC: Implications for Feminist Queer Politics
September 6th, 2018 will perhaps be memorable in the history of socio-political struggles in India, not only as an achievement of LGBTIQKHA+ organising and movement, but as a legitimization of…
Gay Manifesto & International Human Rights Day
Co-Written by Shobha Aggarwal & Dr. P.S. Sahni 11 August, 1992: ABVA organized the first ever protest demonstration in India condemning police atrocities on gay people, at Police Headquarters, New…
Pivoting The Plus | A Radical Call For Recognizing Intersectionality In The LGBTQIA Community
It is time to pivot the plus. The very symbol that has served as an anachronistic additive for the LGBTQIA community has woefully subtracted. The very "+" that has elucidated the "freedom" that…
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