Resisting Stigma and Homophobia: Reginald Watt's Expert Testimony, Bangalore Panchayat
Director: Jeevanandhan Rajendran
Duration: 00:08:58; Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1; Hue: 8.821; Saturation: 0.172; Lightness: 0.177; Volume: 0.114; Cuts per Minute: 0.111; Words per Minute: 63.197
Summary: Action Plus, a network of 14 organisations working on HIV/AIDS in India, conducted a series of People’s Panchayats in 2009, which sought to understand people's battles against Stigma and Homophobia through the voices of survivors and resistors. The Panchayats sought to address the devaluation of livelihoods and life systems of entire communities of people who practice alternate sexualities, and the erosion of rights or dignity.
This series of People’s Panchayats was held in five cities in India. The first one was in Bangalore on January 28, 2009, the second in Hyderabad on February 6, 2009, the third in Chennai on March 21, 2009 and the fourth on April 11, 2009 in Pune. The fifth and final one was held in New Delhi on April 24, 2009.
Each of the Panchayats followed a similar structure. The interactive meetings were structured to have affected members from sexual minority communities share their personal experiences of living with stigma and homophobia. These were the deposers. Then the two-member expert panel shared their thoughts and ideas based on their experience in the field. The audience comprising of the general public, NGOs, media, opinion leaders and religious communities made their queries and comments at the end of the deposition. There was a brief audience interaction following which the jury or the panch gave its ‘verdict’.
In this video, Rex Reginald, an Expert at the Bangalore Panchayat, shares his reactions to the testimonials heard, as well as to the verdicts pronounced by the various religious leaders present. He also sheds light on the recent history of the gay rights movement in India, highlighting the human rights aspects of the movement in particular. Mr. Reginald is clear that the queer community is not asking for special privileges but rather, for inclusion and the right to a life of dignity.
Bangalore
My "expertise" comes from my own experience. I identify as a homosexual and an intersex person maybe and that is my expertise. I'd like to start maybe by just looking at why we face this stigma and because of this stigma – so much of violence, discrimination and harassment in our lives. Most of the religious leaders have told us that religion is very tolerant, religion is accepting, religion treats everyone as equal - but the society that we live in has also been influenced by religion and the society that we live in expects all of us to fit into two boxes. If you're a male, you're in one box and your gender is a man, if you're a female, you're in another box and your gender is a woman. And you're all expected to be heterosexual. But there are many people like us, myself and many of us sitting in the audience who do not fit into these societal norms, we do not fit in to these boxes – therefore we are stigmatized. Where does this stigma come from? What is the influence? I don't know – maybe somebody should answer me. I think it is the moralistic attitude that society has. This baggage that society carries which actually stigmatizes. Because as we know the society we live in, using the word sex is taboo. And here are people who are different, people whom society looks at as "abnormal". I don't look abnormal, I don't feel abnormal, I feel like anybody else. I feel I'm a very, very normal human being. it's just that my sexual preference or my sexual orientation or my gender expression is not fitting into the societal boxes and because of this from childhood we have faced violence in our lives. That's the kind of life that people with alternate gender/sexuality face.
People's Panchayats on Resisting Stigma and Homophobia; Action Plus - a Coalition for Rights, Education and Care in HIV and AIDS. Rex Reginald, an Expert at the Bangalore Panchayat, shares his reactions to the testimonials heard, as well as to the verdicts pronounced by the various religious leaders present. He also sheds light on the recent history of the gay rights movement in India, highlighting the human rights aspects of the movement in particular. Mr. Reginald is clear that the queer community is not asking for special privileges but rather, for inclusion and the right to a life of dignity.
abuse
action plus
aids
bangalore
care
coalition
education
expert
hiv
homophobia
human rights
intersex
panchayat
people
resistance
rex reginald
rights
society
stigma
violence
Bangalore
People's Panchayats on Resisting Stigma and Homophobia; Action Plus - a Coalition for Rights, Education and Care in HIV and AIDS. Rex Reginald, an Expert at the Bangalore Panchayat, shares his reactions to the testimonials heard, as well as to the verdicts pronounced by the various religious leaders present. He also sheds light on the recent history of the gay rights movement in India, highlighting the human rights aspects of the movement in particular. Mr. Reginald is clear that the queer community is not asking for special privileges but rather, for inclusion and the right to a life of dignity.
Today we are talking about religious tolerance, acceptance. We are talking about social inclusion; we are talking about people who have all these years lived on the margins of society being once more included in the society. And as Reverend Nirmala said, to do this, we need to be good advocates. We need to bring about a social change. The struggle has been happening for ten years and it has made a slight amount of change but there is still a long struggle ahead.
We are not asking for special privileges – we are asking for dignity and respect. Just like everyone asks. We are not asking that we want to be treated specially, no, we want to be included. Many a times, society has not accepted and has tried many a times to change people. Often society finds a solution in heterosexual marriage. But getting them heterosexually married does not stop a homosexual from being a homosexual. It just makes life more difficult for that person – a life where you have to be untruthful and unfaithful to yourself. Just imagine…who can live in that situation?
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action plus
aids
bangalore
care
coalition
education
expert
hiv
homophobia
human rights
intersex
panchayat
people
resistance
rex reginald
rights
society
stigma
violence
abuse
action plus
aids
bangalore
care
coalition
education
expert
hiv
homophobia
human rights
intersex
panchayat
people
resistance
rex reginald
rights
society
stigma
violence
Bangalore
I think this debate is the first step – we need to widen it, not just keep it within four people of different religion. We need to be more inclusive, we need to get more people and we need to start talking about it more widely, more openly. And maybe that would change the society that we live in. we need to be good advocates, go out and change society.
People's Panchayats on Resisting Stigma and Homophobia; Action Plus - a Coalition for Rights, Education and Care in HIV and AIDS. Rex Reginald, an Expert at the Bangalore Panchayat, shares his reactions to the testimonials heard, as well as to the verdicts pronounced by the various religious leaders present. He also sheds light on the recent history of the gay rights movement in India, highlighting the human rights aspects of the movement in particular. Mr. Reginald is clear that the queer community is not asking for special privileges but rather, for inclusion and the right to a life of dignity.
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