2011

FACT FINDING MISSION AT NANDIGRAM 

Sappho for Equality conducted a follow up visit to Nandigram on 30th October 2011. The team included six members. Nine months prior to the second visit,  on February 2011,  a  team from SFE went to Nandigram for finding facts of the twin suicide of Swapna and Sucheta, a lesbian couple from Sonachura village. The team came back with audio-visual documentation of the context and advocating for the rights of lesbian women. A month later,  another team went to the same place for further analysis of the situation along with shooting  a documentary film, which was hence produced  by Sappho for Equality. The motive was to mobilize st a grassroot level an advocacy and awareness camp on sexualities, sexual health and consent amongst the villagers. However, the untoward and threatening behaviour of the Officer-in-charge of the district made their phobia about the issue very evident. Realising the situation the  team was compelled to withdraw their proposal of the camp.

MORE THAN A FRIEND- FIRST ADVOCACY FILM PRODUCTION 

As awareness of same-sex relationships in India emerges, the movie More Than a Friend depicts the perspectives and lives of four characters: Rupsa, Ranja, Ranja's mother, and their domestic helper Lakkhir Maa. Real-life interviews with people from diverse social groups who voice their opinions on a variety of linked issues and share their experiences with fear and embarrassment are woven throughout the film. The movie demonstrates the complexities of the discourses around same sex relationships rather than attempting to address all the challenges it raises.

Together We Are Campaign

Together We Are’ is a series of workshops through which Sappho For Equality (SFE) approaches different important players of the society like the Police, Administration, Medical fraternity, Lawyers, Academicians, Student population, Rights-Based NGOs and families of persons with non-normative gender-sexual identities. Workshops are conducted with various institutions to address and sensitize them about non-normative gender-sexual identities and lived experiences. 

The ‘Together We Are’ series worked on creating a dialogue that would open up avenues of interaction and exchange, that helped create awareness and facilitated sensitization, along with forming networks and orienting the law enforcement agencies. The first workshop of this campaign was with the Police and it started in 2011.