Saturday 3/13 - SALGA Monthly Support Group Meeting

Join us on Saturday 3/13 for our monthly support group meeting.

Date: Saturday, March 13th, 2010
Time: 4pm - 6pm

Meeting location:
LGBT Center

Meeting Topic:
Healthcare

This meeting space is available for people who trace their descent from countries such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Tibet as well as people of South Asian descent from other regions, including but not limited to the West Indies, Africa, Southeast Asia, Canada and the U.K.

The objective of the meeting is to provide a safe space for people where they can freely discuss and share aspects of their experiences as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning individuals.

Facilitators guide the meeting which provides the opportunity for open dialogue about issues important to the participants. Individuals decide on their own level of involvement.

It is the hope of SALGA that you feel welcome in this gathering and be able meet and make friends with people who can better understand, share and empathize with you.

Visit www.gaycenter.org for directions to the Gay and Lesbian Community Center.

Indian Court Overturns Gay Sex Ban

Activists embraced outside the high court in New Delhi after the court decriminalized consensual gay sex on Thursday. [Harish Tyagi/European Pressphoto Agency]

By HEATHER TIMMONS and HARI KUMAR
Published: July 2, 2009
Source:  The New York Times

NEW DELHI —In a landmark ruling Thursday that could usher in an era of greater freedom for gay men and lesbians in India, New Delhi’s highest court decriminalized homosexuality.

“The inclusiveness that Indian society traditionally displayed, literally in every aspect of life, is manifest in recognizing a role in society for everyone,” judges of the Delhi High Court wrote in a 105-page decision, India’s first to directly address rights for gay men and lesbians. “Those perceived by the majority as ‘deviants’ or ‘different’ are not on that score excluded or ostracized,” the decision said.

Homosexuality has been illegal in India since 1861, when British rulers codified a law prohibiting “carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal.” The law, known as Section 377 of India’s penal code, has long been viewed as an archaic holdover from colonialism by its detractors.

“Clearly, we are all thrilled,” said Anjali Gopalan, the executive director and founder of the Naz Foundation, an AIDS awareness group that sued to have Section 377 changed. “It is a first major step,” she said during a news conference in Delhi, but “there are many more battles.”
Read the rest of this entry »

Pride Reception!

Come to SALGA’s annual Pride Reception for the community as well as out-of-towners! This year, it will be at the very trendy, very hip Le Royale.

Don’t miss DJ Rekha who will be spinning beats all night long!

Where: Le Royale 21 7th Ave. South
When: Saturday June 27th at 9pm
Cover: $5 before 11pm, $10 after; $5 for students all night

Dyke March and Pre-March Brunch

Saturday, June 27th

Brunch - 1:30pm @ Dhaba (108 Lexington Ave. between 27th and 28th street)
March - 5pm @ Bryant Park (42nd St. and 5th Ave.)

Come march with SALGA dykes on June 27th. March starts at 5 p.m. sharp at Bryant Park. Please arrive by 4:45 at the latest. We will meet on the steps at Bryant Park. Bring posters, noisemakers, hula hoops.

Please also join us for a delicious $9.95 lunch at Dhaba (108 Lexington Ave between 27th and 28th Street) starting at 1:30 p.m. Please be prompt as the restaurant closes at 3pm. RSVPs are greatly appreciated. We look forward to seeing you!

The Dyke March was started in 1993 by the Lesbian Avengers in Washington, D.C. Dyke Marches now take place all over the world. The Dyke March is a protest march not a parade. We march in solidarity with all lesbians: those who are out and those who cannot be out, those who are loud and those who have been silenced. We will march until every lesbian in every corner of the world can raise her head high and be proud.

South Asian GLBT group honors families of LBT women

Khush Klatch | by Yusef Najafi in Metro Weekly (Washington DC) | Published on April 9, 2009
Link to article

There are few who could claim to have explored the relationships between GLBT South Asians and their parents as deeply as Sonali Gulati. As a documentary filmmaker, Gulati has spent much of the past five years doing just that for a film she hopes to finish later this year, Out & About.

With that theme in mind, Gulati has helped to organize an April 11 event for KhushDC, the metro area’s ‘’social, support and political group” for GLBT South Asians, of which she is a board member. ”Loving Ties: Honoring South Asian Queer Women’s Families” will be an evening of conversation, dinner and honoring parents who have supported their lesbian, bisexual and transgender daughters, commemorating March as Women’s History Month.
Read the rest of this entry »