Hues may vary, but humanity does not
Chennai Pride - Tamil Version(தமிழில்)
Chennai Rainbow Pride: June 28, 2009
Inspired by these words of Tamil poet Mahakavi Subrahmania Bharathi, the Chennai Rainbow Coalition was formed in 2009 to celebrate the essential humanity of all, across differences of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Several formal and informal local collectives working on gender, sexuality, environment, media, youth, culture, HIV/AIDS, and social justice issues helped organize events around Pride, including MP, Sahodari Foundation, Shakti Center, Sangama, Sahodaran, Alliance Francaise of Madras, Center for Counselling, Centre for Advocacy and Research, South India Positive Network, South India AIDS Action Program, Corporate Accountability Desk, Solidarity and Action Against The HIV Infection in India, Youth for Social Change, Nalamdana, Lotus Sangam, and Social Welfare Association for Men..
The Chennai Pride march, at Marina beach, was the city’s first ever, and represented the culmination of a month-long series of events including panel discussions, classical and modern dance performances, film screenings, a meet for parents of LGBT youth, and two press conferences. Shortly after the march on Sunday June 28, 2009, the country’s queer citizens rejoiced to the July 2 Delhi High Court judgement decriminalizing consensual adult sexual behavior.
Chennai Pride lent local visibility to our voices, cultures and struggles. The full list of events is below, while photographs from various events are in the slide-show on the right panel of the screen :
Media coverage of the Pride events may be be found in the June-July 2009 archives of http://www.twitter.com/chennaipride