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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Minutes of Meeting

I have received a call from one of my friend to attend the planning committee meeting for the Chennai Rainbow Pride Parade 2009 (God, the name is soooooooo long...). He told me the pride rally will take place on June 28th from Marina. I thought it is the suitable place to begin with since most of the gays are very familiar with it (lol)...they used to visit this place for one reason or another every week...

The meeting was a huge turnout...to be honest at first i felt like i was in a different planet, i even wondered what i was doing there...there were so many people including from the transgender community with whom i never been with before, it was a strange experience for me. I felt like people are staring at me and watching me all the time...say it self conscious or whatever...i was idle and trying to catch up with the happenings there...

Then came the Saviour, after few minutes of the meeting, a hot guy came in and sat next to me. He looked like a model (god, he looked so damn hot)...he said nothing or didnt even introduce himself, he sat there quietly next to me. I was wondering what this straight looking hottie is doing in the middle of a hot discussion regarding LGBT Pride or whatever...There were close to 25 people in the room and i guess all eyes were on him. Suddenly there were plenty of giggles, unwanted interruptions, volunteer opinions etc... people even started to wander around in the room. I was somehow relaxed then, i was clueless about the reason...may be is because of the feeling of being around with someone who is looks like a straight guy which im used to all the time...or because of the lack of gaze from the crowd towards me after the model stationed.

One of the organisers tried to get the attention of the crowd including me away from the Model guy. they started discussing about Guests (model guy is now trying to adjust his t-shirt). Anirudh started reading out the possible celebrities and guests for the Pride (model guy is now feeling thirsty, he started to look around the room). finished reading out and then another person started discussing about handling the media (model guy is really thirsty now, he looked at me twice, i thought there was even a glimpse of smile on his face). One of the organiser informed the group that there were press releases about the Chennai Pride (i found out that the model guy has really long hands and fingers). Few were seriously taking notes whatever been discussed in the meeting (i have noticed that the model guy was now bit restless, he closed his eyes twice and looked at me for help i thought) . After a long discussion the committee decided to nominate a person to represent each community for the media( the model guy was totally restless now, he stood up and left the room immediately) There was a long silent in the room now, the committee decided to have the planning meeting again on 18th June.

Though im familiar with Gay Prides, but i had no idea how it is going to be in Chennai. Since Tamil society consider homosexuals are transgenders and they still ignore the fact that there are gays, lesbians and bisexuals exist. Though i truly respect trangenders and their concerns, but i just hope that this Chennai Pride is not all about Transgender rights and issues. Like no other state government Tamilnadu is expectionally doing well to provide life and support to Transgender community and the society have almost accepted them, but transgenders are not the only people in LGBT community. To my statistics knowledge i believe the total number of LGBT population in chennai is close to 50,ooo people. And 80% of them are gays, lesbians and bisexuals. These people are still so discreet in the society and suffering. These people are not 'out and proud' unlike the transgenders. I just hope that there are enough representation from these community and their issues will be raised in this Chennai Pride. Though i never been to these kind of social activities, which i told my friend, but he convinced me if i attend the meeting there might be something in for me to write in Chennai Dost....so i did, but now i have decided to participate and provide my support to this Chennai Pride, i just hope many of you will join me.

The discussion is about choosing a name for the committee which is organising this Chennai Pride, ways of reaching the celebrities to invite for the Pride, various cultural events and reaching out all these LGBT community people. There was a press release in Times of India, Indian Express earlier regarding this Pride, so people were discussing about the ways of handling the media etc...I have learned prior to the Chennai Pride Rally on Jun 28th, there are various other events being organised by the planning committee. Cultural event on 20th at besant nagar and also Parent or partner meeting and counselling for LGBT people at CFC centre on 23rd etc...for more details regarding this event please visit http://www.orinam.net/

Note: I have later learnt that the model guy is actually a professional model, who came there to meet a person, obviously he had no clue about the meeting neither he was looking at me...so please stop enquiring about him...he is a straight guy.

Please comment about this post to chennaidostt@gmail.com

1 comment:

  1. Hi Vikki,
    Thanks for the news--but I didnot expect you (of all persons) to be so dumb to let go an oppurtunity when the dude was sitting next to you(may be he wanted you to start a conversation)--it turned out to be anti climax.
    Let us know the timing of the Pride.
    luv SIVA

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