Sappho for Equality is an organization based in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

, working for the rights of lesbians,

bisexual women Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, wh ...

, and

trans men A trans man is a man who was assigned female at birth. The label of transgender man is not always interchangeable with that of transsexual man, although the two labels are often used in this way. ''Transgender'' is an umbrella term that in ...

Eastern India East India is a region of India consisting of the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal and also the union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The region roughly corresponds to the historical region of Magadha ...

. It focuses on community empowerment and support, engagement with civil society and other organizations, and advocacy and lobbying.

History

Sappho for Equality was founded out of Sappho, an organization established in June 1999 by three middle-class Bengali lesbian couples, inspired by the 1996 film ''

Fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition ...

''. The organization was named after the 6th century Greek poet. According to Sappho for Equality's website, Sappho worked to "provide safe space and emotional support for sexually marginalized women and female to male transpersons," but moved on to "rights/justice based framework to fight homophobia, discrimination and violence against LBT persons." Core members of Sappho founded Sappho for Equality in 2003, focusing on activism and public outreach. According to Sappho for Equality's website, "Sappho today exists parallel to Sappho for Equality as the LBT community based informal support group.") According to Srila Roy in ''OUPblog'', "Members of Sappho are automatically members of SFE, but not the other way round. Sappho embodies, in this way, two common strands of the queer movement in India—one that links sexuality to identity (the support group) and one that attempts to break this very association (the activist platform)."

Work

Sappho for Equality's community support work includes offering peer counseling, running a

helpline A helpline, or switchboard, is a telephone service which offers help to those who call. Many helpline services now offer more than telephone support - offering access to information, advice or customer service via telephone, email, web or SMS. ...

and counseling service, and conducting workshops. As of 2013, its helpline received seven calls a day. It runs an annual "Sexuality Academy", works with students, participates in the

Kolkata Book Fair The International Kolkata Book Fair (formerly Calcutta Book Fair) is a winter fair in Kolkata. It is a unique book fair in the sense of not being a trade fair—the book fair is primarily for the general public rather than whole-sale distribut ...

, documents issues like lesbian suicides, and does advocacy work on issues like

Section 377 Section 377 of the British colonial penal code criminalized all sexual acts "against the order of nature". The law was used to prosecute people engaging in oral and anal sex along with homosexual activity. The penal code remains in many former col ...

, in addition to working with police, medical students, and medical practitioners. Sappho for Equality organizes ''Dialogues'', an annual LGBT film and video festival established in 2007. It publishes ''Swakanthey'', a magazine described by ''

Scroll.in ''Scroll.in'', simply referred to as ''Scroll'', is an Indian digital news publication owned by the Scroll Media Incorporation. It publishes content in both Hindi and English languages. Founded in 2014, the website and its journalists have won ...

'' as "a biannual, bilingual six-page newsletter of academic articles, non-fiction stories and poetry," established in 2004.

References

{{reflist LGBT organisations in India LGBT political advocacy groups in India Organisations based in Kolkata 2003 establishments in West Bengal Organizations established in 2003 Sappho

History

Work

See also

References