In the month of June 2022, One Future Collective organized #PrideWithOFC, a month-long initiative to celebrate our queerness, build solidarity, and learn together about queer identities and politics.
During Pride Month we:
- Built knowledge and visibility for the concerns of queer folks;
- Advocated for queer rights and liberation in our ecosystems;
- Nurtured safe spaces for queer individuals and our communities
As a part of this, OFC held a range of events, including:
- Six online sharing spaces
- The Introduction to Queer rights course (online)
- Social media collaborations
- Awareness session with PLC Inayat, Delhi
- An Offline celebration Space
- Fundraising at the Satrangi Mela- Pune and Mumbai
(1) Online Sharing Spaces
We held a total of six online spaces for Pride with OFC, 2022.
Queerness and Faith
On June 9th, we held the first sharing space on ‘Queerness and Faith’.
Impact: This space was intended to look into how queerness is unique in everyone, exploring faith, and how to navigate the intersection of both. This was done with self-reflection activities, art, and group activities. This sharing space was attended by a small group of 5 participants.
Discovering My Sexuality as a Queer Person
Discovering My Sexuality as a Queer Person [June 14, 2022]
Sexuality Educator Apurupa Vatsalya facilitated a session on ‘Discovering My Sexuality as a Queer Person’.
Impact: Through this session, participants explored and spoke about their sexuality as a queer person, and how to navigate it in a cis-heteronormative society. The participants were able to share verbally, and via reflections. This was a warm, inclusive space where folks could question, share, and sit back with their thoughts.
Queer allyship and solidarity as Parents
We also conducted a workshop on ‘Queer allyship and solidarity as Parents’, facilitated by queer-affirmative counselling psychologist Sristhi Bannerjee.
Impact: The workshop was open to all parents on how to be better allies as parents and how to nurture solidarity for queer-affirmative caregiving. This space was attended by 7 parents, who found the workshop engaging and informative.
Neurodivergence and Queerness
Neurodivergence and Queerness [June 23, 2022]
Social science researcher Aishwariya Srinivasan facilitated a workshop on ‘Neurodivergence and Queerness’ on June 23, 2022. The workshop was a space for queer folks to learn about the intersection of queerness and neurodivergence.
Impact: The workshop served as a safe space for participants to gain knowledge and find community.
LGBT-ea Party Night
LGBT-ea Party night was a virtual celebration party held on June 26, 2022. Participants come together to discuss queer art, authors, books, movies, and songs.
Impact: 6 queer folks attended this space, and all participants shared that they found this space to be “wholesome and safe”. Participants navigated what queer literature means, the erasure of queer folks and improper portrayals of queerness in media while listening to a playlist curated during the celebration party.
Queerness and Desirability Politics
[Queerness and Desirability politics, June 28, 2022]
Facilitated by Sonal Jain from Boondh, the workshop on ‘Queerness and Desirability politics’ was held on June 28, 2022.
Impact: All 6 participants found the space to be a safe space for sharing, exchanging dialogue and talking about how desirability is unique, yet politics that is inclusive is how they could relate to each other and reflect as individuals and as a group.
(2) Introduction to Queer Rights Course Introduction to Queer Rights [Cohort of June-July, 2022]
We began the Introduction to Queer Rights course on 22nd June 2022 with 21 participants. This cohort-based course is intended to facilitate introductory learning about gender, sex, sexuality; queer rights and liberation; as well as allyship and solidarity within queer communities. Through this course, we aim to build capacities in people to enable them to work towards creating safer, informed, and more queer-affirmative spaces in their micro-communities and ecosystems. This ongoing course is held on Wednesdays and Fridays from 6 PM to 9 PM, IST.
(3) Social Media Collaborations
OFC collaborated with various organizations and individuals and hosted Instagram lives on themes related to Queerness and Pride Month.
The following is the list of all Instagram lives:
- June 17: Importance of Gender Sensitization for children– Shreya Joshi and Dream a Dream‘s Varsha Pillai and Pavithra
- June 24: Intersection of Queer rights and Healthcare– Shreya Joshi and Ayushmita Samal from ECHO
- June 25: Queer affirmative PoSH– Karishma Shafi and Meghana Srinivas from Trustin
- June 30: Importance of inclusive Comprehensive Sexuality Education for the youth– Anannya Parekh and The Zero Period‘s Simran Nanda
(4) Awareness Session with PLC Inayat, Delhi on ‘Beyond the binaries’
[On ‘Beyond the Binary’, PLC Inayat, June 30, 2022]
Facilitated by Shreya Joshi held a session on awareness of Queer identities for PLC Inayat on June 30, 2022.
Impact: 30+ participants held the workshop. We touched upon the basic difference between sex, gender, sexuality, various laws and Queer rights in India, and ended the session with How to be better allies.
(5) Offline Celebration Spaces
Art, Poetry, Music Night at Mumbai and Delhi
We held an ‘Art, Poetry, and Music evening’ at Doolally, Khar in Mumbai.
Impact: Participants created their own queer art using various modalities, including visual art, poetry, make-up, and movement. Additionally, we co-created a community playlist of songs. 12 people attended this space and celebrated with snacks, art, and a sense of togetherness.
We also held the Art, Poetry, Music evening in Delhi. 3 participants attended the event where they got together and had a celebratory time with snacks, art, and music.
Along with the above-mentioned spaces, OFC held a Queer Rights Course for June 2022 as well.
[Art, Poetry, and Music evening, Mumbai, June 11, 2022]
[Art, Poetry, and Music evening, Delhi, June 11, 2022]
(6) Satrangi Mela
We held fundraising stalls at Satrangi Mela, at FC socials, Pune on June 19 and antisocial, Mumbai on June 26 respectively. We sold our merchandise- right from social justice, mental health, and queer rights-based badges, stickers, bookmarks to our resource books on Introduction to Trauma-Informed Communication, as well as conversation cards for Inequity and Climate Change, and Domestic Violence- for our fundraiser #MentalHealthForAll
All funds go directly for financial aid, for psychological support for urban youth (eg- therapy, psychiatric medications etc).
Satrangi Mela [Pune 2022]
Feedback of participants for Online and Offline Celebration Spaces
- On a scale from 1-5, 5 being the best, 57.1% of the participants rated it 5
- The quality of facilitation satisfaction rate was 85.7%
- 100% of participants responded that they found a community after coming and attending the online and offline spaces
- 100% of participants stated that these spaces helped them with their mental health
Thus, this Pride month through #PrideWithOFC we got to connect with Queer folks in various ways including capacity building, online sharing spaces, offline celebration spaces, fundraisers, and more.
We were able to reach 52,663 folks on our social media organically and engaged with 4,881 folks.
We had queer folks from all walks of life come together in our celebration spaces with creativity and a sense of togetherness, we fostered safe and confidential spaces for them to exchange dialogue and find a community as well as spaces serving them to help their mental health. We also worked toward making connections, knowledge building, and raising funds for our Mental Health For All fundraiser.
We are happy that #PrideWithOFC served as a space of Queer Joy.
Read more about One Future Collective, and continue engagement on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Read the full report here.