Sappho for Equality is an organization based in

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, working for the rights of

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

bisexual women Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction to ...

, and

trans men A trans man or transgender man is a man who was assigned female at birth. Trans men have a male gender identity, and many trans men undergo Gender transition, medical and social transition to alter their appearance in a way that aligns with th ...

Eastern India East India is a region consisting of the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal and also the union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The states of Bihar and West Bengal lie on the Indo-Gangetic plain. Jharkhan ...

. 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 fuel in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. Flames, the most visible portion of the fire, are produced in the combustion re ...

''. 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 distribu ...

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

Section 377 Section 377 is a British colonial Penal Code provision that 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. As per a Supreme Court of I ...

, 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. Founded in 2014, it is owned by SCSN Pvt Ltd. History Background Samir Patil, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumnus and McKinsey & Company associate wa ...

'' as "a biannual, bilingual six-page newsletter of academic articles, non-fiction stories and poetry," established in 2004. In 2023 the organisation opened Porshi, a canteen located in Kolkata, Jodhpur Park. The venue provides a safe place for LGBT individuals, and offers reduced cost food and venue hiring.

References

{{reflist Lesbian culture in Asia LGBTQ organisations based in India LGBTQ political advocacy groups in India Organisations based in Kolkata 2003 establishments in West Bengal Organizations established in 2003 Sappho

History

Work

See also

References