Gaysi Zine vol.2 Launch!

Urban Solace, 6 pm, 19th October.

With performances by Dolly, Mari, Haider, Not a Number and others!

Write for Sanghamitra!

Hi Friends, we're trying to organize the next issue of Good As You's magazine, Sanghamitra (http://www.goodasyou.in/sanghamitra). Like the last two years, we intend to release the 2012 edition on (or around) 2nd July, so we're already a bit late in sending out this request for submissions.

Please send us LGBT-related original work, particularly in the following categories:
Creative/Fiction:
- Short/Long Story
- Poetry
- Erotica
- Art Submissions/Photos
- Jokes & Factual Tidbits

Features/Personal Experiences:
- Stories of good dates, bad dates, relationships, humourous anecdotes, other personal experiences
- Stories/accounts from straight friends/relatives/parents/siblings
- Coming Out Story
- Inspiration Page (Something/someone that has inspired you to come to better terms with yourself and your sexuality)
- In Memoriam (Tributes you may want to pay to a friend/lover that you lost)
- Gripes/Rants (Any issue that you take objection to and would like to vent about)
- Relationship Profile (You can choose to be interviewed for this, you don't have to write it yourself. Discretion will be exercised per your wishes.)
- A writeup on issues of particular interest to bisexual people
- General LGBT-Interest articles
- Opinions on any queer related issues
- Feedback/suggestions about our previous issue(s)

If there is anything else that you think might interest the readers of Sanghamitra, please do feel free to submit it, we are open to looking at anything publish-worthy.
Please send your submissions to <editors.sanghamitra@gmail.com> BEFORE 31 MAY.

Please help make Sanghamitra YOUR magazine, expressing YOUR voices, addressing YOUR issues.

Looking forward to your submissions.
The Sanghamitra Editorial Team

"Writing our own history - Finally!"

So this wound its way onto the WHaQ mailing list, and it seems like a good idea to pass it around as much as possible. 

Hello Queer People!

A recent chat, actually let’s say a recent comment thread on Facebook
led Udayan Dhar and I to a realisation that we’re sure most of you
would agree with — something that should have happened by now, but
hasn’t! So we took it upon ourselves to get this idea into action and
here’s why you’ve received this mail.

It’s been a good, super-happy and challenging 2 years since the law
‘came out of the closet’. Yes, we’re legally gay and how! But what
seems to have been missed in all this celebration or the lack of it,
are the wonderful stories of people who were involved in or affected
by the movement — personal narrations of varied individuals who were
most actively involved or affected by the high court ruling that week.
From the high spirited celebrations of the multi-city pride, news
stories of which, still elicit a tear in anyone involved in the
struggle in the smallest of ways, to the country erupting in joy over
the final high court order — we hope to capture and re-live those
moments, those nail-biting hours and those euphoria filled festivals
from the mouths of the very people who made it happen.

We’re looking for 15-20 stories and 15-20 nominations of people who
you think should make it to the book... and then we shall contact
these people and get them to share their story.

As they say, “Only when it is written, will it be known to have
happened”, and hence, this is our very own, small yet much-required
step towards writing our own History.

Please send us nominations and broad areas in which you think your
nominees can represent that wonderful week.

For example: Someone who worked on the legal front could be nominated
to write his/her experience with a legal perspective — personal, yet
legal all the same.

Get in touch with either of us, before the 23rd of July.
Udayan Dhar — udayan@pink-pages.co.in
L Romal M Singh — elromal@gmail.com

Looking forward to hearing from you.

P.S. Please mail us all your nominees. Comments on the social network
service will not be accepted — only to avoid confusion.

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Gurl in the World has already blogged this, but please, take a look, pass it on: Children have been separated from their mother, kept captive in a foreign country. Their mum has legal custody, their dad kidnapped them anyway. Sign this petition, please? Help reunite a mother with her children.

The Word Shall Set You Free

"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind." Rudyard Kipling

Words, be it spoken or written, have the power to transform our world and the world of those who come in contact with it. Words are the most powerful weapon that we have. Some of us take pride in the fact that we know many languages. But, language is at its best only when used to inspire others to find the best in themselves.

All positive emotions like love, laughter, heroism, friendship, and every emotion we feel as human beings can be inspired by words. Negative emotions like fear, anger, and hatred can also be invoked by words.

One verse in the bible that has inspired me a lot is John 1.1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

Actually what the apostle (John) meant to say was that all the verses in the Bible are from God and it should be obeyed without question. For a rationalist like me, the verse shows the power of words.

We all know that more blood has been shed in the name of religion than for any other cause. What provoked the bloodshed? The words in the religious books whose meaning was transferred wrongly or the words of the author taken as from God and believed and followed blindly.

So dear friends we have the most powerful weapon with us let us go forth and conquer the world.
Here is the link to my favourite song, Words from Boyzone