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RAINBOW PRIDE WEEK 2007
June 24 to July 1, 2007
Films, music videos, TV spots and interviews, mobile film shows and film awards; dance shows; painting exhibitions; forums for “significant others” of sexual minorities; interaction with artists, filmmakers, media persons, doctors, lawyers, social
workers, teachers, police and administrative officials; street plays and a solidarity march!
Amitie¢, Astitva Dakshin, Bandhan, Fellowship, Kolkata Rista, Koshish, MANAS Bangla, Northern Black Rose, PLUS Kolkata, Prantik Bongaon, Pratyay, Sangram, Santi Seva, Saraswati, Swapnil, Swikriti and SAATHII welcome you to Rainbow Pride Week 2007!
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The “rainbow” stands for diversity in gender and sexual expressions, each of which is equally worthy of “pride” just like each colour in the rainbow!
The rainbow has been adopted by many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) people and other sexual minorities the world over as their symbol of “equality and unity in diversity”.
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The Rainbow Pride Week is all about . . .
Looking back for inspiration: To millennia of records of same-sex love in Indian history; to pioneering activists who struggled hard to bring sexual orientation, gender identity and associated sexual health issues into the larger human rights movement in India; and to flashpoint events like the Stonewall Riots in USA in 1969.
Looking forward with
hope: To the next step in the India-wide campaign against Section 377, Indian Penal Code, an outdated law that unjustifiably criminalizes LGBT people, and hampers life-saving sexual health and HIV/AIDS work among LGBT people.
Registering protest: Against the daily incidents of violence and varied forms of discrimination faced by LGBT people in India and elsewhere, often leading to murder, suicide and loss of health.
Renewing our pledge: To work for equality and dignity in all spheres of life for LGBT people and all other
sections of society denied their human rights. With your support!
The Rainbow Pride Week will begin with the Siddhartha Gautam Film Festival on June 24 and conclude with the Rainbow Pride Walk on July 1. The film festival is organized annually in memory of the late Siddhartha Gautam, lawyer, human rights activist and one of the first persons in India to talk about sexuality and HIV/AIDS as human rights issues in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. The festival provides a forum for screening of films and dialogue on human rights issues that Siddhartha worked on.
SAATHII and its partners organized the first edition of the film festival in 2003 in Kolkata, Siddhartha’s birthplace. In 2005, the film festival broke new ground with India’s first LGBT film awards (SAATHII Rainbow Film Awards). The winners of the first awards were Onir for “My Brother Nikhil”, which was voted the “best film portraying lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender characters and issues”, and Purab Kohli in “My Brother Nikhil” as the “best actor in the role of a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender character”.
The film festival, in 2005, also made its debut outside the metro cities (in Chandannagar). This year, in its fourth edition, the festival has a five-day schedule in Kolkata, Howrah, Beherampur and Bhadrak (in Orissa, the first ever venue for the festival outside West Bengal). It will conclude on June 30 with the announcement of SAATHII Rainbow Film Awards 2007.
The Rainbow Pride Walk is organized each year to mark Stonewall Riots Day, a landmark event that took place on June 27, 1969, in New York, USA. The riots were a mark of protest by LGBT people in USA against
police harassment that was a daily feature of their lives in those days. The riots sparked off what can be said to be the modern movement for LGBT rights in the West. The Indian LGBT movement that took its first steps in the early 1990s also draws moral strength from the Stonewall Riots event – though the Indian LGBT scenario is different in some ways from its counterparts in the West and elsewhere.
The first ever Rainbow Pride Walk in India was organized in Kolkata in 1999 by LGBT-India, Integration Society and Counsel Club, all support forums for LGBT people. From 2003 to 2005, Integration Society took the lead in organizing the walk along with other LGBT initiatives and supportive individuals and organizations.
In 2006, Amitié, Chandannagar took the lead in organizing the walk with support from a large number of LGBT community-based organizations and supportive health, development and cultural non-government organizations. It was the first time that a large number of LGBT initiatives from Kolkata and its neighbourhood were involved in the walk, which attracted 200-250 participants from all over India and abroad. This indicated geographical and cultural broad basing of the Indian LGBT movement, a trend gaining strength since the early 2000’s. This year too, Amitié will co-organize the walk with several other agencies.
The organizers
of the Rainbow Pride Walk have always received generous logistics support from Kolkata Police. It is time for Indian LGBT people to be free from discrimination, receive respect 365 days a year from all sections of society, and function as equal participants in a progressive and democratic India!
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Chronological highlights of Rainbow Pride Week 2007 (tentative)
§ June 24: Inaugural media conference and opening of Siddhartha Gautam Film Festival 2007 at Future Business School, Kolkata, 12.00 – 3.00 p.m. (refreshments included)
§ June 24: Film festival continues: Meeting and film screening with “significant others” of LGBT people (Swikriti, Koshish and SAATHII) at Future Business School, 5.30 – 8.30 p.m.
§ June 25: Film festival: Film shows with audience focus on administrative and law enforcement officials, government and non-government health functionaries, human rights activists and the media (Fellowship, Saraswati, Santi Seva and SAATHII) at Sitaram Conference Hall, Bhadrak, Orissa, 3.30 – 8.30 p.m.
§ June 25: Dance
presentation and film festival, with audience focus on doctors, lawyers, social workers, teachers, administrative officials and media persons (Amitié and SAATHII) at Ramgopal Mancha, Howrah, 6.00 – 9.00 p.m.
§ June 26: Film festival: Mobile shows with audience focus on general public (Fellowship, Saraswati, Santi Seva and SAATHII) in and around Bhadrak town, daylong
programme
§ June 26: Dance presentation and film festival, with audience focus on administrative officials, social workers and academics (Sangram, Swikriti and SAATHII) in Ritwik Sadan, Beherampur, 6.00 – 9.00 p.m.
§ June 28: Film screenings, skits presentation and interactive session on gender, sexuality, human rights with trainee men in uniform at Police Training College, Barrackpore (MANAS Bangla and SAATHII)
§ June 29: SAATHII presents painting exhibition “Dohri Peeda” by Pankaj Gupta from Lucknow. The paintings express solidarity with the struggles of people living with HIV (PLHIV). Venue: Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata. Inauguration and interaction between media persons, special invitees and the artist 4.00 – 6.00 p.m. Exhibition opens for general viewing from 6.00 pm till 8.00 pm
§ June 29: Film festival continues with films on HIV/AIDS issues and audience focus on artists, doctors, lawyers, social workers, teachers, political functionaries, PLHIV, media persons and students at Tapan Theatre, Kolkata, 6.00 – 9.00 pm
§ June 30: Painting exhibition “Dohri Peeda” concludes, Birla Academy of
Art & Culture, 4.00 – 8.00 pm
§ June 30: Final day of film festival with films on gender-sexuality issues for an open audience and announcement of SAATHII Rainbow Film Awards 2007 at Tapan Theatre, 3.00 – 9.00 p.m.
§ July 1: Rainbow Pride Week 2007 culminates with street plays and Rainbow Pride Walk 2007 in Kolkata!
Other highlights
§ Purchase a “Ban 377” t-shirt and other “rainbow apparel” from Jailbird, Mumbai on June 29 and 30 at Tapan Theatre
§ Distribution of Rainbow Pride Week and Siddhartha Gautam Film Festival literature and Section 377 Indian Penal Code petition updates
* Photo and video documentation of the week’s activities
Contacts
Amitié, Chandannagar: Bikram Das 93318 24527
Astitva Dakshin, Baruipur: Sanjay Mandal 98308 37440
Fellowship, Bhadrak: S. M. Farooque 94372 66492
Kolkata Rista: Santosh Kr. Giri 93392 19696
Koshish, Kolkata: Sanjay Ram 98300 23153
MANAS Bangla: Sanjib Chakrabarty 92305 02216
Northern Black Rose, Siliguri: Souvik Ghosal 94338 72396
PLUS Kolkata: Bipul Chakraborty 98301 64613
Sangram, Beherampur: Kazi Ali Aftab 99331 51482
Swapnil, Burdwan: Saidul Haque 93322 34865
Swikriti, Kolkata: Rajarshi Chakraborty 94330 09190
Solidarity and Action Against The HIV Infection in India (SAATHII):
Pawan Dhall 98312 88023
Purono ta kaaj dichhey na? Cholun, taholey ek round notun kichu kori!
Pawan Dhall
Country Director - Programmes & Development and
Calcutta Office Director
Solidarity and Action Against The HIV Infection in India (SAATHII)
CD 335, Sector I, Salt Lake
Calcutta 700 064, West Bengal, India
91 33 2334 7329 (Landline)
91 98312 88023 (Mobile)
Skype: pawan.dhall30
www.saathii.org
www.saathii.org
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