Rising cases of discrimination, forced marriage and extortion worry LGBTIQ community | Pune News

Khire said the foundation would launch its pre-litigation consultation legal aid cell for the community on October 17 to help the community to get a deeper understanding of the legal challenges and explore options related to forced marriages, discrimination, extortion and related concerns. Khire, said in the past two months they have already provided legal consultation for 7 cases.

The launch of the cell coincides with the first anniversary of Suprio vs Union of India (gay marriage case), where the Supreme Court ruled against same-sex marriage.

The Centre last year set up a committee headed by the cabinet secretary to look into issues of same-sex relationships.

“After discussions with community members, we sent a slew of suggestions to the committee. It is our experience that the affected community members are more open to discussing these sensitive issues with persons who belong to the LGBTIQ community. Hence, we thought it made sense that preliminary legal aid consultation services be provided by LGBTIQ community advocates,” Khire said.

“In the last 10 years, we have reached out to more than 2,000 gay men and transgender people. While the work of advocacy on same-sex marriage continues, the LGBTIQ community continues to face a host of legal problems at the ground level. Lack of awareness/sensitisation of various stakeholders, lack of knowledge of law among the community and paucity of organisations that provide legal and technical support on legal issues continue to plague the LGBTIQ movement in Pune,” Khire said.

To address these issues, the foundation is initiating a slew of measures to raise legal awareness and understanding on LGBTIQ issues in Pune. As more and more LGBTIQ people come out of the closet, it has become imperative that companies and institutions create a safe environment for these communities. Two important aspects of creating such a safe space are to conduct awareness and sensitisation sessions for staff and to conduct sessions for their internal complaints committee members to increase their understanding of the diversity, equity and inclusion of the LGBTIQ community.

“As part of the long-standing demand of the LGBTIQ community, they have started work on creating a series of short videos on ‘LGBTIQ–Current Status of Law and Medical Science’ to enhance the understanding of the community on legal and medical issues. The pre-litigation cell will operate on second and fourth Saturdays from 10 am to 12 noon.