The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Poster show on gay struggle inaugurated at U.S. Consulate

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Friday, Jun 19, 2009
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Poster show on gay struggle inaugurated at U.S. Consulate

Staff Reporter

“Equal Rights for All” without regard to orientation or gender identity the theme

— Photo: Special Arrangement

Equal rights: U.S. Consul- General in Chennai Andrew T. Simkin and his wife Elizabeth Simkin inaugurating a poster exhibition on the gay struggle, on Tuesday.

CHENNAI: Through the month of June, the U.S. Consulate General will celebrate “Equal Rights for All” without regard to sexual orientation or gender identity, which is the theme of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month. The celebrations include a poster exhibition and a focus on prominent authors who are gay or lesbian, at the American Library.

On Tuesday Andrew T. Simkin, U.S. Consul General in Chennai, inaugurated the poster exhibit created by Consulate employees on the history of gay and lesbian struggle for equal rights in the United States with photos and quotes from a few of the most famous and accomplished LGBT Americans. The exhibit can be viewed at the American Library.

“President Obama, in proclaiming LGBT Pride Month on June 1, called upon Americans ‘to turn back discrimination and prejudice everywhere it exists’ so that all people are ‘allowed to live their lives with dignity and respect’,” said Mr. Simkin, explaining why June was being celebrated as LGBT Pride Month. On Tuesday, leaders of non-governmental organisations, human rights lawyers and journalists from South India interacted with Matthew Coles, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Director of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & AIDS Project, via digital video conference between Chennai and New York.

During the month of June, the American Library will display works of literature by American writers who are gay or lesbian such as Truman Capote, Gertrude Stein, Susan Sontag, Tennessee Williams and Alice Walker.

There would be non-fiction too, such as Stonewall by Martin Duberman (about the 1969 riots in New York City that mark the beginning of the modern gay rights movement), Sons of Harvard by Toby Marotta (about lives of both privilege and isolation), and And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts (about the AIDS epidemic in the United States).

The American Library is open to the public Monday through Saturday, from 9.30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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