On Monday evening, Gaysi, an organization run by lesbian women, will host its annual entertainment programme, Dirty Talk, at a Mumbai cafe. In addition to a musical performance by India's first gay choir, the open mic session will have people coming on stage to share their stories, crack jokes and engage in light-hearted banter. But the money generated from the event will not go to the LGBT community. Instead, it will go to acid attack victims.
Hair-stylist Sapna Bhavnani, spokesperson for Stop Acid Attacks says that when people give towards their own cause alone, they're often trapped in a bubble. " Why should people support only one community? Both the LGBT community and acid attack survivors are fighting similar battles for their rights," she adds.
This year's theme for Dirty Talk is Women in Contemporary India, says MJ, one of the event's organizers. "As a lesbian woman, my identity as both a woman and lesbian are equally important," says MJ. Dirty Talk hopes to address women's rights and choices through jest.
"If we said we were celebrating an evening for acid attack victims, I'm not sure anyone would turn up," jokes Hairsh Iyer, one of India's most prominent LGBT faces. He made it to Guardian's list of most influential LGBT people worldwide for 2013.
Iyer featured in an earlier edition of Dirty Talk themed "Survivors." A victim of child sexual abuse, Iyer has spoken out on television in graphic detail about an uncle who raped him through his childhood, after which he received over 50,000 emails from other survivors sharing their stories.
"There's a selfish reason behind my speaking of what happened to me. Survivors of abuse often have blank spots in their memory. Barring a few graphic instances, I had blocked a lot of what happened to me from my memory. Speaking about it helped unblock my memory, and was a way of therapy for me," says Iyer.
He recently featured in a video which began with him talking of how much he " loved cock." This was not an attempt at obscenity. Mid-way through the video, he picks up a rooster to clarify what he's talking of, and then proceeds to detail the cruelty meted out to chickens in meat industry.
The video was shot for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) during the LGBT pride month in June this year, urged people to 'wipe hate from their plate' with a pledge to go meat-free.
Discrimination against those who are different forms the basis of racism, sexism, homophobic behaviour and speciesism (a bias favouring one's own species), says Poorva Joshipura, CEO, PETA India.
" Oppression of people who are not heterosexual and the oppression of animals are both examples of the abuse of power," she says,
Iyer has taken the idea a step further with an online page called the "Ministry of Miniscule Minorities," which encourages those on the fringes of society to share their experiences.
Other causes taken up by the lgbt community
· Battling acid-attacks
· Women's rights
· Child sexual abuse
· Animal rights
· Disability rights
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