World Pride is in New York City this year so get your Pride on with our round-up of parades, marches, parties, and exhibits during the month of June.   Keep this page bookmarked as we will update it regularly.  Email us if you’ve got a desi queer tip in NYC. PARTIES, PARADES AND MARCHES   Sunday, June 2nd | 12PM – 6PM Queens Gay Pride Parade & Festival Kick off Pride Month at the

Posted: May 26th, 2019

“I have always believed that everyone should have the freedom to love.” Dutee Chand, the 100 m record holder and winner of two silver medals at the 2018 Asian Games, is the first Indian sports star to acknowledge being in a same-sex relationship. India’s fastest running woman, Chand, 23, was previously known for fighting for the right to compete in races against other women. She has hyperandrogenism, a condition that naturally

Posted: May 20th, 2019

“From now onward, a third gender individual can be a voter with their own identity, as a hijra,” Abdul Baten, the Director of National Identity Registration declared. The trans community of Bangladesh has finally been granted the right to register to vote under a “third gender” identity category. Government officials allocated the category on the national voters’ list for the country’s trans community, commonly known as hijra. Prior to the change, Bangladeshi voters could only

Posted: May 3rd, 2019

We’re excited about the opening of “The Portrait is Political” this Wednesday, April 24th from 7-9 PM at the Gallery at BRIC House in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. The exhibition will feature “Jasmine Blooms At Night,” a series of small scale paintings by Brooklyn-based artist Jaishri Abichandani portraying South Asian American feminists and activists in the local community who are making a large social impact.  And her series features a portrait of

Posted: April 22nd, 2019

The Kenyan film, Rafiki, a romance about two teenage girls falling in love in Nairobi received positive reviews internationally when it was released last year, but was summarily banned at home as the subject of lesbian love was classified as “incendiary.” The head of film classification expanded on the board’s opinion – “The attempt to normalize homosexuality is akin to air-conditioning hell.” Director Wanuri Kahiu is suing the government for infringement of

Posted: April 14th, 2019

All of us desi queers binge watching Made in Heaven are witnessing a not-so-quiet  revolution on the digital screen. While Bollywood plays catch up on the silver screen with the recent release of Ek Ladki Ko Dekha, internet-driven platforms have been offering wider and fuller representation of LGBTQ Indian characters for the past couple years. Made in Heaven, the steamy web series directed by Zoya Akhtar that premiered on Amazon in March, chronicles

Posted: March 25th, 2019

In preparation for the sixty-third session of the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations kicking off next week, join the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) and their annual dance party, which will be attended by women activists and organizers from around the world.  The event is co-promoted by Rutgers University’s School of Arts and Sciences and CWGL.  The party will take place on Thursday, March 14th

Posted: March 7th, 2019

While Ek Ladki Ko Dekha is being heralded as mainstream Bollywood’s first feature focusing on a lesbian relationship, independent Indian filmmakers have been producing films with desi-queer themes for decades. BomGay, Fire, and My Brother Nikhil are one of dozens of critically acclaimed productions that have tackled the topic. We’re thrilled that Sholay’s very own visuals maestro, Lotus Visual, has co-produced a Marathi language short film, U for Usha— a nuanced

Posted: February 10th, 2019