Citizens for Justice and Peace
Pride and priorities: Gov’t should create reliable support systems for LGBTQIA+ persons in crisis A Madras HC judge has setting new standards government institutions to ensure equal rights, respect and protection
10-Jun-2021
In a landmark approach to delivering justice, Justice Ventakesh, a Madras High Court judge, recently underwent sessions with a counseling psychologist and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, before passing orders in a case where a lesbian couple sought protection from violence and intimidation by their own families. Justice Venkatesh’s unique approach to jurisprudence The court…
LGBTQIA+: Madras HC guidelines for sensitisation of stakeholders Detailed directions to police, judiciary, legal aid services and central ministries
09-Jun-2021
The Madras High Court on June 7 established a landmark approach towards addressing the social issue of acceptance of the LGBTQIA+ community. The 104-page judgement delivered by Justice Venkatesh is a pioneering judgement in the way it has dealt with clearing out the court’s prejudices and has made an attempt towards transformative jurisprudence. The judgement describes in…
NHRC sets up LGBTI Core Group, ropes in activist Harish Iyer 15 member group to advise the commission on harmonising existing laws with needs of the community
14-Aug-2018
Equal Rights activist Harish Iyer has been appointed to the National Human Rights Commission’s (NHRC) Core Group on Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Intersex (LGBTI) issues. This is the first group set up exclusively to look into the concerns and challenges of India’s vibrant rainbow community and marks a step towards greater understanding and acceptance of…
SC to start hearing petitions to read down Section 377 Pleas to decriminalise consensual sex in private between adults of any gender or sexuality
09-Jul-2018
The Indian Supreme Court is all set to start hearing a series of petitions that call for the reading down of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. In these petitions the plea is to decriminalise consensual sex between adults in private. Section 377 that criminalises ‘carnal intercourse against the order of nature’, also affects heterosexual…
Stonewall Uprising: A Rainbow Rebellion, Not a Riot An account of the event that sparked the Gay Rights Revolution in the United States
28-Jun-2018
June 28 marks the anniversary of Stonewall Uprising, one of the most important events in the international LGBTQ movement. It started with a raid by the New York Police Department (NYPD) at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in New York City in the early hours of the morning in 1969. This was followed by days…
Homophobia is Anti-National: Keshav Suri #DesiMillennial Interview on decriminalisation of Section 377
01-May-2018
Section 377, that criminalises ‘unnatural sex‘ has been the bane of every Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex and Asexual (LGBTQIA) person’s existence in India. But with feisty Millennials like Keshav Suri moving the Indian Supreme Court to decriminalise Section 377, it appears that the day is not far when the sun would shine bright…