For the first time in campus history, sexual minorities of the Delhi University came out to openly discuss their experiences.
The all-student panel discussion titled Sexual minorities in DU was aimed at unveiling the complex life that lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender or queers is confronted with on a daily basis. Besides, it even criticised the various bodies focused on gender issues of having a ‘tokenised’ approach to the growing issue.
“Most of the times for sexual minorities it becomes difficult to make friends or find a partner. In such cases they resort to online dating sites and other such social networks which are not reliable and can turn out to be dangerous,” said Vikramaditya Sahai, a queer himself and member of DU’s Gender Studies Group, which organised the event.
Accusing the society of marinating double standards, Taksh Sharma, one of the panelists, said, “Attempts of gender sensitisation have failed as people acknowledge them in discussions and public fora, but in reality find it extremely hard to accept anyone from the lGBTQ community. Even while the phenomenon has started to appear in politics, with the Government recognising transgender in Aadhaar cards, still, what about the other minorities.”
“The lesbians are not accepted and feel uncomfortable in their own college or campus. People don’t respond or befriend bisexuals or queer as they are confused about their exact orientation. Transgenders are in a total mess as people fear them. This is a result of lack of awareness, which needs to be done,” added Sahai. The panelists included Nishtha Tewari and Zeeshan Akhtar, among others. The Gender Studies Group plans to give out booklets which in the next semester will contain FAQs on the issue.