Awareness program on LGBTQ, FSW,PLHIV held at Vimukti Pothnal:
Vimukti Charitable trust®, Pothnal
with the collaboration Aptha mithra development organization,
Sindhnoor jointly organized awareness program on lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) ,female sex worker, and
people living with HIV on 16th of June 2018 at Vimukti premises. The
objective of the program was to make known the struggles of LGBTQ,
female sex worker and people living with HIV people face in the
society for their existence.
The resource person Sri Madhu said, as a community, LGBTQ people
face higher rates of poverty, stigma, and marginalization, which put
us at greater risk for sexual assault. We also face higher rates of
hate-motivated violence, which can often take the form of sexual
assault. Moreover, the ways in which society both hyper sexualizes
LGBTQ people and stigmatizes our relationships can lead to intimate
partner violence that stems from internalized homophobia and shame.
Yet, as a community, we rarely talk about how sexual violence
affects us or what our community’s unique needs are when it comes to
preventing sexual assault and supporting and caring for survivors of
sexual violence. Within the LGBTQ community, transgender people and
bisexual women face the most alarming rates of sexual violence.
Among both of these populations, sexual violence begins early, often
during childhood.
For LGBTQ survivors of sexual assault, their identities – and the
discrimination they face surrounding those identities – often make
them hesitant to seek help from police, hospitals, shelters or rape
crisis centers, the very resources that are supposed to help them.
This awareness program provided the participants as eye opening
session to understand the life tussles they undergo for their
survival in the society. Nearly 98 participants participated and
benefited from this program.
|