QueerCampus is a first of its kind LGBT students' group in India. It has just begun as an online forum on Facebook. Since the group is nascent, the concept and idea of organization for it is bound to change over time. But, as of now, to get QueerCampus going, we, the three senior year college students who have come up with this collective, have decided to work on the following things.
What will we implement?
1. An online group to facilitate interaction among LGBT students and discuss the idea of an LGBT students' collective
We aim to make the facebook QueerCampus India group and the QueerCampus blog popular with Indian LGBT students. We invite all queer stuents, LGBT rights activists, community members, and allies(whether straight or gay!) on our facebook forum to have discussions on a myriad of topics-how to form a group across colleges and universities and facilitate resources and members for the same, how to promote visibility for the queer student community, how to reach out to schools etc.
2. To form city/campus specific QueerCampus groups for LGBT students
We will help to earmark campuses and cities that have LGBT students willing to be a part of QueerCampus. Thus there will be several region/campus specific QueerCampus groups. Accordingly, we invite students to serve as QueerCampus City Coordinators who will be responsible for facilitating such a group across campuses in their own city. We will also plan city specific meetings so that our LGBT student members can interact and get to know each other :) We will ensure that QueerCampus India admins personally interact with all QueerCampus City Coordinators who, in turn will be responsible for personally interacting with LGBT student members in their own city. So, such meetings will be completely safe and secure because they will be planned for the queer students, of the queer students and by the queer students!
The first such group is - QueerCampus-Delhi
3. Encourage Queer students to share their stories, experiences and opinions
We will use the QueerCampus blog to post opinions, relevant news/information, updates about QueerCampus and evolve it as a means to reach out to allies and prospective members. We would like the blog to be the collective voice of LGBT students..so if there are any budding student writers or poets in our group, they can feel free to mail us anything that they would like to be published. We will post it on the blog with their name/pseudonym..as they wish :) And if they have a blog and would like it to be listed at QueerCampus, they can mail us the link!
4. Carrying this forward
We, QueerCampus India admins, are twenty somethings on the brink of leaving college. And we( and I guess, you too) understand that this will be a long drawn battle. It is possible that QueerCampus group may remain dormant at times. So, at the very least, we will continuously work towards building a strong online base/support for this LGBT students' collective. And we hope that everyone of you will be an ally in our endeavors.
How can YOU support us?
If you are a Queer Student
We sincerely invite you to be a part of QueerCampus. We need tonnes of student members for our collective to be a success. It is a place where you can meet other students like you, not only in your own city but also across India. Join our facebook group QueerCampus India. Participate in discussions. Have your opinions published at QueerCampus blog. Publicize QueerCampus among other prospective members. You can also act as our QueerCampus City Coordinator. Drop us an email.
If you are an NGO
Contact us on our email. Get to know about our collective. Please inform us of any way in which you can help us to grow, organize, and support the activities that we can plan for the LGBT student/youth members.
If you are an LGBT rights activist/community member/media organization
Help us to build an online support base for QueerCampus. Join our group. Feel free to mail us, participate in discussions and give ideas. To forge this collective into something significant, we will need your support for a long period of time.
If you are a non-queer identified person
Understand. Accept. Respect. And support. We would love to hear from you and know of the ways in which you can help. Drop us a mail :)
After pride parades, Azaad Baazar, Queer groups and parties...this Pink Revolution is only inevitable. I welcome all queer students to be a part of it.
