Coming out as a lesbian in India, be it to yourself or to others, signifies the loss of a certain heteronormative script which governs the lives of most people. This script prescribes a certain timeline by which most lives are ruled, especially in India – marriage, children, in-laws, old age. To be queer in India is to realise that this script will never be your life. But even more significant than the loss of this script is the realisation that there are many things in life that you may never have – a lifelong companion, family, love or happiness. At least, this is what I believed.
By Ananya Priyadarshi Sep 6 2021 |
What happens when you come out to yourself in the middle of a pandemic? I am a 22-year-old cis-woman who spent most of her life invested in heterosexual relationships. Most of my dating life was 'easy' as I navigated through real-life or dating apps looking for people with similar interests as mine. As the heteronormative setup has it, it was never difficult for me to voice my choices or to confess to people I had a liking for.
By Reetika Sep 2 2021 |
In a world where we are taught to be something, do something the moment we’re born, it becomes extremely hard to navigate through life while making sense of what’s being taught to us at the same time. And if you dare question
By Seven Aug 21 2021 |
Every other day on Netflix, I watch a queer-affirming, high school series or movie. Elite, The Prom, Glee, Moxie, Sex Education, the list goes on. I …
By Raju Behara Aug 16 2021 |
Sometimes these labels of sexuality caused me more stress and trauma. It led me to the idea of defining all my partnerships and prove time and again my position within the LGBTQIA+ community. My sexuality has been validated with my choices and redefining it with a label was something which was upsetting and deteriorating to my well-being and I believed that it's more than just a mere definition.
By Patruni Chidananda Sastry Aug 9 2021 |
My depressive phase started with the distance between us and the distancing of ordinary life from me. I'd had anxiety issues, but it was then that everything started coming to the surface. I completely forgot how to walk in the streets, as if the stares of strangers were a knife's sharp edge waiting to kill me if I stepped out so much as to even buy medicines.
By Shai Aug 3 2021 |
So, redo it, then —
A hundred thousand and twenty times
Somehow, I'm still here
Struggling to get it right.
By Saachi Gupta Aug 2 2021 |
Sex is a lot more than just two individuals’ organs (or reproduction, as cis-hets will have you believe); it’s a unity, it’s a blissful cycle of exchanging things like pleasure, power, satisfaction, appreciation. If look towards sex for a deeper meaning, it does give you an explanation to multiple powerful things.
By Jash Jul 29 2021 |
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