India's gay voices crackle to life

[unhappycamper]

http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/02/indias-gay-voices-crackle-life/



Chandni, a LGBT community member in Bangalore, tunes in online to Qradio

India's gay voices crackle to life
By Stella Paul

BANGALORE, Feb 11 2014 (IPS) - It is Wednesday afternoon in Bangalore, known as India’s tech city for being the hub of information technology companies. In her small four by four-foot studio, Vaishalli Chandra, channel manager of QRadio which is dedicated to the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community, is in conversation with Ankit Bhuptani, a 21-year-old gay youth from Mumbai.

“I was 15 when I realised I was gay and it made me feel as though I had sinned against god. I began to condemn myself,” Ankit reveals. “But then I came to accept myself the way I am.”

Chandra, a straight person, smiles and calls out to her audience: “Yes, social acceptance is important and it begins with you accepting yourself. So let’s talk about that.”

Thanks to opportunities to network, unburden themselves and celebrate, radio is clearly emerging as the choicest media of the LGBT community in India.

[Mister Ed]

1. 63 million voices would make a very powerful chorus indeed

My unscientific, wild-ass guess is that at least five percent of any population is LGBT. If that number held true for India's 1.27 billion people, then we'd be looking at 63 million LGBT.

That is truly a social force to be reckoned with. Once 63 million voices were raised, they would never be silenced or stuffed back into a closet again.