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LesBiT fact Sheet


For women who love women, any political claim to space is complicated by the fact that
Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code
renders all non peno-vaginal sex illegal.
Thus living an “illegal” love and life implies
hiding and thus most public claims to space beget constant harassment

A quick glance through the hard facts and realities…

The project fights for the advancement of the human rights of lesbian/bisexual women/FtMs, and other women who love women. Sangama recognizes that this community face dual oppression of being a woman (either born, raised or living as a female) and as a sexual minority in the patriarchal, homophobic society; hence the relevance of the project. We focus on the lower socio-economic sections of this community. The goal of this project is to visibilize of human rights violations against the community and to bring about changes in the social attitudes towards lesbian and bisexual women, FtMs etc. We work towards gaining support from other sexuality minority organizations, feminist groups, individual social activists, human rights groups, other progressive groups and so on so as to hold the movement together and stronger. It is our intention to build support groups of lesbian/bisexual women/FtMs etc. to break the widespread isolation faced by the community and to fight collectively for social change.

PROJECT STRATEGY:

  • Organizing lesbian/bisexual women, female to male transgender population
  • Providing help (including temporary shelter) to the key population in crisis situations
  • Building a network of lesbian/bisexual women, female to male transgenders through quarterly meetings and telephone help-lines
  • Creating economic opportunities for the key population
  • Campaigning for rights of lesbian/bisexual women, female to male transgender population
  • Alliance building with other progressive groups and individuals

ACTIVITIES:

Our past, present and future projects include:

  • The "South India Lesbian/Bisexual Women's Conference" for lesbians, bisexual women, female to male transgenders (FtMs), female partners to FtMs and other women who love women organized by Sangama hosted about 30 women and FtMs from throughout South India for a two day conference in Bangalore.

  • Temporary Shelter: Shelter has always been a perpetual need for the functioning of the project. Sangama's temporary shelter started functioning on the 15th of August, 2005. It took at least three months of continuous effort for Sangama to find a suitable space for a lesbian shelter. Since its opening till date, shelter has been functioning in full swing. A very challenging task for Sangama has been accommodation of Female to Male Trans genders and/or butch lesbians who many times form a major part of Sangama's, and to be more specific the project's key population. The shelter being a “women’s” space, accommodating somebody who even “look like men” though is highly risky, it was Sangama's very conscious decision to provide shelter to FtMs.

    • The residents of the shelter are provided not merely space to stay, but they avail all kinds of medical, psychological, legal and other financial assistance/support required to meet their basic necessities. Shelter is provided for a time period of two months, after which the residents are advised to move out to lead an independent life of their own. During their stay in shelter, the residents are made available the facilities for skill development trainings or classes completely based on their interests and skills. This is done so as to develop job opportunities and hence economic opportunities for the community who are deprived of their basic rights including right to live an independent life of their own.

  • Helpline: Setting up of telephone helpline services in Bangalore is in process – counseling training to be launched with expertise guidance from outside agencies for counseling training. Launching of the helpline services, we anticipate would contribute towards the collectivization process.
  • Crisis Intervention: Sangama has been directly intervening into crisis situations where violation of rights of lesbian/bisexual women, FtMs take place, be it from their family or from the outside society over the past few years. The simple fact that the shelter has already in a short span of six months accommodated around 10 people on an average explains the amount of crisis interventions Sangama has attended to.
  • Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS): An initiative to network building with various hospitals in and around Bangalore is in process. This for Sangama as well as for the project is very crucial, as the key population of the organisation as well as for the project is sexuality minorities from working class background who otherwise would not be able to afford an SRS. Also, this is initiated keeping in mind that the process once started, has to be followed up appropriately for which the network would be effective a system than depending on a single doctor or a hospital.
  • Networking and/or Alliance building: Through quarterly meetings, telephone helplines, weekly community meetings, effective field work etc., we build a network of (a) progressive organizations, (b) individual activists and (c) the community. The network building basically has its focus on south Indian states like Karnataka and Kerala, but spreads across the border to other states as well.
  • Field Work/Outreach: The outreach work for the project has always been an extremely challenging one. Reaching out to the lesbian population is highly challenging a task as lesbians are least visible in the society outside. The very fact that women themselves have very less space in the society explains the reason for the invisibility of lesbian/bisexual women. Also, the fact that unlike other sections of Sexuality Minorities, like say the hijras (male to female transsexuals) or kothis (feminine men), the lesbians do not have a history recorded of the kinds of experiences that women of their genre have gone through before, makes them feel that their option to come out is next to absent if not absent.

    • The outreach work in the project include going to the field, talking to people, exploring the possibilities of conducting workshops, seminars, lectures etc. so as to build awareness among the youth and to eradicate at least in the long term the taboos associated in general with sexuality minorities, and in particular with lesbian/ bisexual women and female to male trans genders. Besides, the community mobilizer/community organizer engages herself/himself in the field with distribution of leaflets which speaks about same sex love, pasting of stickers on walls, shopping complexes, buses and so on, that holds helpline numbers and other details. The main area of work/ field for the project is generally educational institutions which include not only non- professional colleges, but also medical institutes, law colleges etc. These, Sangama thinks are important, as there is a need that the social and legal institutions are necessarily sensitive to the issues related to sexuality minorities.

    Our Routine Activities

    • Weekly community meetings are organized at Sangama’s head office every Sunday at Shivaji Nagar. Around 20 people attend the meetings regularly. Formation of the group in its real sense is the primary step towards achieving the objective of the project, viz advancement of human rights through collectivization process.
    • As part of the project, life stories of individuals from the community are being collected to form a booklet. There are also projects where a collection of life stories, articles, poems and so on be compiled into a book form.
    • The community meetings are organized towards formation of a support group of the community which would assist, criticize and support the activities of the project.
    • Network building with progressive groups and individuals, towards campaigning for the human rights of Lesbians, bisexual women and female to male transgenders, is another important concern of the project. The project at present is directly collaborated with an NGO called FIRM, based in Kerala.