Monday, January 11, 2010

Report on all the LGBT related work Jan to Dec 2009

A list of activities in relation to the LGBT community, 2009

Date & Month Events

January 5th 2009- Meeting organised by Sangama and hosted by Center for Counselling to discuss setting up a Human Rights commission for S E Asia

Jan 2009- Series of meetings with Shakti center and intensive discussions on the Harry Benjamin Standards of Care for SRS at CFC office

January 31st to April - 8 Tamil group sessions and 8 English group sessions were completed

Feb 2nd - Discussions on Peer counselling training with Mr. Aniruddh Sakthi center

Feb 23rd- Discussions on collaboration with Sakthi center

April 6th - Meeting organised by Sangama and hosted by Center for Counselling to discuss issues of violence among transgenders. This was conducted due to the highly published articles of alleged forced sex change operations by TGs to get young boys into prostitution. Plenty of heated debates and a decision to sensitise the general community on issues relating to TGs as well as within the TG community to reduce the hierarchy within the zamath.

April to May- Series of meetings, interviews to discuss pride events in June was mostly held at our office

June 18th- Meeting at the US consulate as a mark of respect to all those working on the LGBT issues. The evening was hosted by the UN Consul General at his home. All key people working on LGBT issues in Chennai were present.

June 20th- Participated in the panel discussion has happened at Spaces regarding LGBT issues.

June 21st THE HINDU had published an interview of Ms. Magdalene Jeyarathnam, founder/Director of Center for counselling. Chennai suddenly woke up to so much of media coverage on LGBT issues. There was an interview on page 2 and a photo of the panel discussion on page 3
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=469300&id=1460622733#/photo.php?pid=532090&id=1460622733&fbid=1191804802861

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=469300&id=1460622733#/photo.php?pid=532062&id=1460622733&fbid=1191779682233

June 22nd- The feature film “Milk” has been screened followed by a reception at Amethyst.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=848234&id=1460622733

June 26th- The first support group session was conducted for the parents of LGBT community at our office. Very moving for everyone. Active participation by the family and LGBT folks

June 28th Participation in the PRIDE MARCH event

June 29th Got quoted twice on front page of New Indian Express another major newspaper which gave a lot of attention to the LGBT issues. This picture is on facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=469300&id=1460622733

July Pride party at our office


August 16th Thinakaran had a super article on respecting transgendered folks written well by Vaidehi
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=469300&id=1460622733#/photo.php?pid=531861&id=1460622733&fbid=1191743081318

August 28th- Meeting at Women’s development center, Gurukul – The mainstream Lutheran church had gathered people to sensitise their pastors and bring out a statement regarding including the LGBT folks in mainstream church. I got Teja and Gabriel to share in that event and their sharing made a huge impact in the statement that they came up with.

August 29th- The Support group session was conducted for the parents of LGBT community

September 21st- The Psychodrama group session was conduted for the LGBT community by Dr. Herb Propper.

November 12th and 13th - A consultation on Sexuality and Faith at Asha Nivas. Ms. Magdalene Jeyarathnam, founder/Director of Center for counselling has done a paper presentation on the issues of LGBT, she also co-moderated a Panel Discussion with gay men and one transgendered woman.

November 14th- NDTV HINDU has interviewed Ms. Magdalene Jeyarathnam, founder/Director of Center for counselling regarding LGBT issues

Dec 5th and 6th - National Council of Churches had organised a 2 day Theological Round Table conference on sexuality and Churches. Magdalene Jeyarathnam presented a paper and actively participated in the debates and discussions which helped the NCCI to come up with a good policy statement

December 26th and 27th - Peer counselling training has started for the members of the LGBT community. The training will be conducted only over the weekends.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Christmas 2009









Christmas Celebration 2009

Date: 23rd Dec’09

This year Christmas celebration has been organised on our (roof)terrace. Around 6pm in the evening people met for a potluck dinner party. Almost all who said they would come arrived and every one participated in the games. We had the movie ‘Wizard of Oz’ playing in the background, followed by the video of a Madonna album. The participant list is as follows

1. Sudhakar
2. Kavya
3. Ramba
4. Raja
5. Anirudh
6. Vikranth
7. Prabu
8. Asma
9. Sharanya
10. Sunil Menon
11. Randall Giles
12. Harsha
13. Sundar
14. Olga
15. Shiva
16. Srijith
17. Rupesh
18. Mani
19. Raji

Our Center for Counselling staff who joined in organising as well as participated were

20. Mrs.Magdalene, her husband Mr.Eric Miller and daughter Kamala Miller
21. Dhanalakshmi
22. Subashini
23. Usha
24. Padmini

We had a lot of food and everyone enjoyed the food very much. After the dinner little Kamala Miller, Magdalene’s daughter cut the Christmas cake. Cake and gifts were distributed to all the members present and they excitedly opened the gifts. Every one enjoyed the party and it was a wounderful evening!!

Few of the members who were not able to join the celebration due to various reasons spent the evening on Christmas day at Magdalene’s home on 25th Dec 2009. She presented their gifts to them too. They were very happy to receive the gifts for Christmas.
Those who visited on 25th were
1. Kalki
2. Sowndarya
3. Devianyi
4. Kannagi
5. Divya

Here are some photos to remind us.