It’s our pleasure to present to you Hues of Pride, an online resource-centre and media initiative that aims to combat mis/disinformation about the LGBTQIA+ community in India.
Why is such a platform the need of the hour? In India, the queer community’s battle for equality and inclusion is still on. In 2018, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalised homosexuality, was read down. Today, the fight for marriage equality is going on. However, members of the community still face harassment and discrimination – in educational institutions, at workplaces, and in their very own homes.
For there is a lot of misinformation (information that is false but not created with the intention of causing harm) and disinformation (information that is false and deliberately created to harm a person, social group, organisation or country) about the community spread by people, groups and even mainstream media.
One of the ways to battle this is by providing access to correct information. And that’s what Hues of Pride aims to do – through articles, explainers, interviews, and profiles. It’s a journalistic initiative to delve deeply into issues that concern the community, and present a well-rounded picture.
Our online resource centre will feature lists of organisations working in the field along with support groups. Since community members lack access to legal advice and proper healthcare, we will also connect them to experts who will address their queries.
To ensure that our content meets the highest standards, we have constituted an advisory board – experts from the community. We would like to thank the members of the board, our healthcare and legal experts as well as all the organisations that have agreed to be featured on our website and shared their resources with us. This venture would not have been possible without you.
We would also like to invite members of the LGBTQIA+ community to be part of this initiative – do write to us, write for us, share organisations and resources, so that together we can help bring about change.
We hope this platform will help connect people with resources, contribute to responsible reporting about the queer community in India, and ensure that no human being is discriminated against because of their gender or sexuality.
This project has received support from a TechCamp small grant from the US Department of State, facilitated by Kathmandu Living Labs (KLL).