The Challenge

While the S. 377 judgment has improved the legal rights of queer persons on paper, the condition of these rights in practise, a general lack of awareness and social stigma related to queer identities and orientations, and lack of means to identify or access to queer friendly resources are a hindrance to the holistic living of queer persons and is a violation of their right to live their life with dignity.

Our Theory of Change

Young people have a massive potential to change this narrative by becoming active agents of change towards solving the issues that continue to plague queer persons. This Queer Resource Centre is envisaged as a community based, queer youth led platform, both physical and virtual, that can help create societal structures that are welcoming and inclusive of queer persons.

Objectives

1. To serve as a platform to provide verified, hyperlocalised, details of queer friendly resources, in terms of healthcare, education, housing and legal services;
2. To undertake projects, art based and otherwise, to increase the visibility of queer persons and identities in the public space and mainstream their presence;
3. Raise awareness and build sensitisation towards queer identities and orientations, especially amongst children, young persons and their parents and educators – through a bunch of pro bono and paid activities.

Our Model

Services for individuals:

1. Workshops and training: training for individuals through independent, open to all, events
2. Connecting queer persons to safe services: connecting queer persons to safe and verified services, on a paid or pro bono basis.
3. Leadership programs: customised programs for queer persons who may be seeking specific mentoring opportunities to help them advance in their educational or career path.

Services for organisations:

1. Audit and assessment: to understand the current sentiment towards and the rights structure for queer persons at your institution;
2. Policy design and review: examining existing policies and creating new ones to ensure queer inclusion and protection at your institution;
3. Design solutions: reviewing design for queer inclusion and offering recommendations and facilitating implementation of these recommendations at your institution;
4. Training modules: we offer a series of training modules towards building empathy and a cultural shift towards inclusion of queer persons at your institution.
5. Additional modules: for persons and organisations that wants to go beyond sensitisation, we also offer extended modules that focus specifically, in depth, on different aspects of the queer rights movement: mental health, legal rights, etc.
6. Leadership programs: for queer persons at your institution who may be seeking specific mentoring opportunities to help them advance in their educational or career path.

#RainbowHeart

#RainbowHeart was our first digital advocacy campaign around creating a space for queer persons to share their stories of acceptance – self acceptance or acceptance from others, and how that has transformed their journey. Here is a compilation of the first edition of this campaign: eight beautiful, heartwarming stories, of love, grit, and a determination to live life on their own terms.

LGBTQIA+ How to be a Great Ally Manual

An ally is a person who is a member of the dominant group who works to end oppression in his or her own personal and professional life by supporting and advocating with the oppressed population. Being a great ally in India becomes particularly important because of the widespread stigma and dehumanisation of queer persons. This also means that parental acceptance is generally low, leaving queer millennials to seek support mainly from each other and their allies. This manual is meant to serve as an introductory guide for allies to learn how to be better, and great allies.

LGBTQIA+ Myths & Facts E-Book

Most queer lives in India are dented by the negative stereotypes surrounding the community and each identity. Allowing them to entirely shape the course of our journeys would be a grave injustice to the ones who will come after us – where we fail to leave a world behind which is a lot kinder to them. This e-book will help you debunk the most common myths surrounding homosexuality, bisexuality, trans people, asexuality, non-binary identities, intersex people and other misconceptions related to gender and sexuality. We have tried our best to be as inclusive as possible.