"I was born this way," echoed in the room as India's first LGBTQI show choir, 'Rainbow Voices Mumbai' debuted at the seventh edition of Dirty Talk, an event held by the Gaysi family. Most male performers wore stilettos to bring out the theme of the event — 'Woman in contemporary India' and see how it feels to be in women's shoes.
It all began with a multiple-author blog, www.gaysifamily.com started by MJ and Broom in November 2008. They felt that the Indian gay women did not have a voice of their own and thus Gaysi, the Gay Desi, was born. "There was a need for Indian queer women to discuss their stories. There was no Indian context or literature," said MJ adding, the blog with more than 60 contributors, receives 1,200 hits a day.
The Gaysi family hosts one offline event a month which includes film screenings (2by2), queer trivia night and reading events (read out loud) besides organizing their bi-annual open-mic extravaganza Dirty Talk (DT) where queer people showcase their talent.
"We began DT to promote queer talent. We do not just create awareness but also raise funds for social causes. It was predominantly for queer desi women but today it can be anyone from the LGBTQI community can take part. We created Gaysi, a media company to bring all our events under one umbrella so that we can have a more cohesive approach and vision and also pay taxes," said Priya who joined the Gaysi family in 2009.
"What we need to understand is that being gay is not sexuality, but an identity. Section 377 is gravely misunderstood by us all. Today 60% of our audience is women who are becoming confident and comfortable in their own body," she said.
"We are also trying to improve our online presence by coming up with a Youtube channel. We will have short films, videos, public service announcements and more. Our video Ek Ladki Anek Ladkiyaan has gone viral," said Sherlock Homo, the events organiser and contributor of Gaysi.
This years DT saw 300 audience members and seven out of ten women performers. They raised funds for acid attack victims associated with the NGO Stop Acid Attacks. "I am trying to hide my physicality and they are hiding their sexuality. Both of us are looked down upon in the society. All we want is our individual identity and not labels," said Aarti Thakur, a survivor and representative of the NGO.
Gaysi is also coming out with its third edition of Zine, a gay literature magazine, in October. Complete with stories, articles, illustrations and photo essays, Zine is the proof of LGBTQI literature on paper.
Gaysi family is made up of four core members and the problems they face when organizing events for social causes they support is space and funds. "Please help us out by donating," said Sherlock Homo before running towards the DT stage.
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