Author: Anononymous
I've known Ashish for three and a half years now, and it has been a privilege to celebrate leadership in pride, now sharing a safe virtual space with his team's latest initiative - Queer Classifieds India - a whatsapp group that supports LGBTQIA+ professionals to grow their careers on a strong pretext of inclusion and diversity. It also serves as a medium to celebrate visibility and events. It offers solace and sources of mental support to those seeking psychological assistance, and a platform to find roommates/accomodation and queer-endorsed products and services across the nation.
Personally, this group has helped me be more 'out' and sociable in queer-friendly forums of academia, arts and culture - helping me appropriate queer expression in congruence with my fluid and questioning identity. The group has also provided immense psycho-somatic support in times of lacking hope, and has aided in my engagement with the queer world outside my mind and body. The group has also taught me invaluable lessons on being sensitive to personal preferences, discreteness and using the language of queer-friendly dialogue to broaden one's network. The group has been through moments of questioning the relevance of an event or a post, and has survived challenges such as toxic aggression, spamming and correcting an individual for the lack of awareness they've had on the issues regarding queer sensitization. Online communities are always at risk of a few bad actors taking control of the narrative, and such situations require careful and active moderation.
The group has benefited me in making acquaintances across young scholars who I've guided through partaking in their research responses. It has also healed me through participating in fully-funded somatic-arts group therapy for queer and disabled folks. Finally, it's been helping me be more expressive via arts as a medium for building upon and questioning one's momentary identity as an individual. I've gained immense insights from being present at queer-discourses that critically question the majoritarian narrative(s) in actually including minorities in macro-society. It has also created space for me to empathize with the struggles of queer youth in their quest for true acceptance and inclusion. The community has offered a diversity-lens to the perception of queerness beyond categories and labels. It has helped me shift to be a more encompassing and tolerant being, when it comes to queer support and queer existence. Special thanks to members from such organizations that have contributed eras of work in the queer sector of DE&I.
Recently fortunate to be acquainted with Simmi and Vishesh, both in pursuit of queer welfare along with Ashish. I wish the family the very best in the vision and scope they've chalked-out for the group in the near future. I also feel gifted to be a part of their journey in re-defining what queer engagement looks like in a hybrid world of occasional city-wise get-togethers and zoom-meets.
Participating in research on the queer psyche, attending classes on queer politics that I got to know through postings on the group, or accessing mental health support initiatives funded by corporates and NGOs - has collectively centered me in a strong will to contribute more to the community. My writings in queer literature or presenting at conferences couldn't have been possible without the group's presence and immense support. I hope to see my queerness 'coming-out' through intellectual engagement with Indian queer society in a rich and constructive manner that makes me more a part of our collaborative celebrations and a healing to the synergetic vulnerabilities we all hold onto - in associating with the bandwidth across the queer spectrum.
I also give each member gratitude for co-existing, and sharing a part of their lives in this group. I wish the young a bold and grounded 'coming-out' story that results in true acceptance and a reform towards queer-normativity in the long-run. I also am grateful, lastly, to the Beunic team for initiating such a discourse - through their efforts they've touched many lives across India.
My final thoughts on the potentials of this group, if I were to continue an enriching engagement with the queer dialogue, would be -
to document research with consent, done by members of the group
to archive videos and other forms of creative expression by avid YouTubers from the group
to create a list of events calendar so that timely sourcing of information related to interest in participation could be marked as achieved outputs
to gather success stories as testimonies to be added to BeUnic's blogs / website
to encourage mentorship, at collective and individual levels
to organize workshops that induct the use of queer sensitive language
to make events more expressive in art and writing
to host trainings on inclusion and diversity
to create a space where queer individuals feel welcomed
The above, (and more) could steer Queer Classifieds in a direction that could broaden horizons for the queer youth of India, and create a space for the older generations to share their knowledge and skills via collaborative events, workshops and training - both physical as well as virtual. The recent move towards providing placements to queer folks looking for jobs should also help in their goal of providng financial independence to the LGBTQ+ community in India. Although it is a daunting task, I hope the team sees more success in the coming months and years.
I hope the community finds supportive spaces to co-host such engagements offline, beyond being a Whatsapp-based community. I hope to see BeUnic become India's flagship initiative that caters to queer wellbeing, professional development, and provides resources for house-hunting in queer-friendly neighborhoods.
Hopefully, this model can also be replicated in countries outside India eventually. Queer-friendly spaces are much needed in many more countries across the world, and hopefully there will be more contributors and allies that come forward to make our society more friendly, accomodating and inclusive.
(Edited by Team BeUnic)
