Family included discussions about Homosexuality, same-sex couples, families and parenting, co-habitation. The authors of the present Standard XI Textbook (in force since 2019) have continued in the same direction and have included data related to the infamous IPC Section 377.

As a facilitator I am consciously and continuously aware of the need to be inclusive in the language that I use and I bring this constantly to the attention of my learners and colleagues, even if it is to their dismay! I believe it is necessary to keep at it or else it could easily slip back to the old ways.

I am 53 years young and grew up without access to television or the privilege of newspapers especially while in boarding school (1975-1984). My interest in collecting newspaper reports/articles began when print media began publishing little bits of news once in a blue moon. When I started purchasing my own newspaper copy, if I happened to see such  articles, I would immediately cut them out and document the same. My collection became especially meaningful for the purpose of my MPhil research on the ‘Attitudes of Youth towards Homosexuality’ (Madurai Kamaraj University, as a Distance learner). Then I decided to pursue research and was awarded the PhD in Sociology (Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeet, Pune) for my thesis on ‘A study of the Gay Movement with reference to Mumbai’. Presently I am working on a doctorate from Mumbai University on Gender Inclusive Education – the topic is being fine-tuned.

You will observe that most of the newspaper clippings are from 2007 to 2012. Post-2012, plenty has been available on the internet and my purchase of newspapers and interest in physical clippings greatly diminished. Prior to 2007, in the little that I read, I don’t remember coming across too many news items. There may be very few clippings from 2005. All these newspaper clippings were documented by myself. (When I use the term “documented”, I only mean that I would cut the article and write its source and push it into a folder.) In some instances my mother who lives in Kerala would keep articles related to “LGBT” for me, in the days that she received the Indian Express newspaper – when dad was alive (he passed five years ago). Mom prefers to devour the Malayalam Manorama from end to end!
To part with one’s personal collection of other people’s writing is also an emotional journey and experience but difficult as that was, especially because these are efforts made with passion and yearning to read more on the subject, when very little was easily accessible back then. However, in the present environment where almost everything has an e-version it makes no sense to me to hold on to the collection within the confines of my home. So, there is much joy in liberating these resources to the world.

At the courier desk, last evening, I was asked about the “value of the items in the box”: and I was rather dumbfounded, as I have never thought about such in my wildest dreams! ‘Old news papers’ (essentially, in a minimalist sense)….ageing up to 16 years (collection from 2005) have zero value in the ‘material world’ but for those who do know the intrinsic value of such data, it’s impossible to attribute an impersonal, numerical value to it. So, I wrote Rs. 0.00 with a heavy heart. But that’s also okay. I’m sure they needed to have a ‘value’, lest the parcel gets destroyed or lost in transit; that’s all.

This collection description was written by Mr. Ivan John for QAMRA on 30 September 2021.