“Good afternoon to all the handsome and smart women, the beautiful men and all my lovely transgender friends,” said Prof. Kiran Jeevan of St. Joseph’s College as he welcomed a gathering of students, activists and academicians from across the city to a public forum on marginalisation, sexuality and gender on Tuesday.
Presented by activist group Onedede and the gender sensitisation cell at St. Joseph’s College, the event — ‘Towards Radical Inclusivity’ — kicked off with a solo dance performance by event organiser and transgender activist Rakshitha M.
Ms. Rakshitha told T he Hindu that her performance was not meant to please the audience but to provoke them to listen to her story. “Whether they accept or not is not the point,” she said. “They should know that I taught myself dancing from [watching] the TV because I was not allowed to go to classes.”
Smitha Radhakrishnan, guest speaker and associate professor of sociology at Wellesley College, United States, began her speech by inviting the audience to observe a moment of silence for the LGBTQ victims of the Orlando shooting in Florida last month. “I want to talk about inclusivity — not the corporate type that makes up diversity programming,” she said. “I want to imagine with you a radically inclusive world that is better for each and every one of us.”
Onedede president Akkai Padmashali questioned the very concept of consent as understood in India, pointing out that marital rape is not even considered rape by the law.
