Pink Pages

New Delhi, 2 July 2010

By Karin Lundbäck

A year has passed since Delhi High Court’s historic decision to homosexuality. Much remains to change like deeply rooted attitudes, but among India’s LGBT groups there’s growing optimism.
Pride parades, new Indian queer newspapers and an open dialogue about homosexuality. What is now taking place in India was only a few years ago unthinkable and at-least in the cities there’s increasing optimism.
One of many new LGBT Forums is Pink Pages, a neat web- magazine that combines politics, activism and interviews with celebrities, lifestyle stories and readers’ own personal accounts.
Editors sit in Bangalore and like many other LGBT-media is aimed mainly at well-educated people who live in urban areas. To read the Magazine, one requires internet access and good English, two conditions that exclude the majority of India’s inhabitants.
Pink Pages editor 23-year-old Udayan, accepts these restrictions and says it is difficult to create a broad platform. Economy, class and education creates huge gaps, and even though LGBT people in the conservative rural-most areas would require most support, it is difficult for them to take part in the communities being built up in the cities.
“We expect acceptance from heterosexuals, but we tend to exclude most people in our own groups” he says self-critically and continues: “This, we must work at substantially, and we must have more newspapers in regional languages.”
Udayan is convinced that society’s view of them has become more tolerant. Homophobia and Victorian values came with the British, he says, and suggests that before colonial-time there was an open approach to sexuality. Hindu gods and fables tell stories of alternative sexuality, and the erotic Kama Sutra is just another evidence of this.”
“India has traditionally been a country of great tolerance. We have been accepting of different religions, cultures and languages. It is only a matter of time before India starts accepting various sexual-minorities too” he says.

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To read this article in english, click here

Karin Lundbäck

NEW DELHI

Ett år har gått sedan Delhi High Courts historiska beslut att avkriminalisera samlag mellan homosexuella. Mycket kvarstår för att ändra djupt rotade synsätt och för-domar, men bland Indiens HBT-grupper spirarOptimismen.

Ett av många nya HBT-forum är Pink Pages, ett snyggt webb-magasin som kombinerar poli-

tisk aktivism och intervjuer med livsstilsreportage och läsarnas egna berättelser. Redaktionen sitter i Bangalore och likt många andra HBT-medi-er vänder sig Pink Pages främst till älutbildade människor som bor i städerna. För att läsa maga-sinet krävs internet och bra eng-elska, två förutsättningar som utesluter en majoritet av Indiens invånare.

Pink Pages chefredaktör ,23-årige Udayan, medger begränsningar na och säger att det är svårt att skapa en bred plattform. Ekono-mi, klass och utbildning skapar enorma klyftor och även om det kanske är HBT-personer på den konservativa landsbygden som mest skulle behöva stöd, är det svårt för dem att ta del av den gemenskap som byggts upp i stä-derna.

–Vi kräver att bli inkluderade av heterosexuella, men vi inklu-derar inte alla inom vår egen

grupp, säger han självkritiskt och fortsätter: –Det här måste vi jobba myck- et på och vi måste också göra fler tidningar på regionala språk. Udayan är övertygad om att samhällets syn på sikt kommer bli mer tolerant. Homofobi och viktorianska värderingar kom med britterna, säger han och pekar på att det innan kolonial-tiden fanns en öppen syn på sexualitet. Hinduiska guda-berättelser och inte minst den erotiska texten Kama Sutra är bevis på detta.

–Indien har traditionellt varit ett land med stor tolerans. Vi accepterar olika religioner, kul-turer och språk. Det är bara en tidsfråga innan Indien också accepterar olika former av sexua- litet, säger han.

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Parvati Sharma
TimeOut Magazine

A parade of new online queer magazine shows a new confidence within the community says Parvati Sharma.

In October, Apphia K found herself back at home in Pune. She had resigned from her job and was wondering what to do next. Flipping through the occasional queer magazine, she noticed they were all about men, and was “bugged about the act that there was no queer women visibility.” Three months later in January, she had launched Jiah: For the Women with Heart, an online magazine for and by lesbian, bisexual and transgender women.

Jiah’s cover features Lestie Esteves, the “first Indian lesbian to come out on Indian Tv”. Coming out, says Apphia’s editorial, is partly this issue’s theme. “Our first issue brings with it the remainder that coming out isn’t an easy task, but I believe that when you do, you become more confident and honest”, she writes.

It’s a little ironic, then, that Jiah is distributed through “controlled circulation”. You can’t download it off the net: you have to email the editors, who will mail back a copy. Apphia said she wanted to see how many people would write in, to calculate how many might buy a print copy. She also wanted to protect contributors who aren’t out yet. “Nobody can google our writers’ names, that will not happen,” she said.

This difference, however, is balanced by a soaring ambition, which Jiah shares with the several other online queer magazines that have appeared in the post-377 era. Since July, when the Delhi High Court struck down provisions of the Indian Penal Code that made homosexuality illegal, we’ve also seen the appearance of Pink Pages (forst published from Indore, now Bangalore) and Gaylaxy (from Calcutta). Their editors are young, some astonishingly so. Apphia is 25, Gaylaxy’s Sukhdeep Singh is 21, and Udayan of Pink Pages who doesn’t use his last name is 22. Still heady with the euphoria of the judgment, this suddenly-free generation seems to have decided that they have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

The magazines are eclectic in content, widely fluctuating in equality and exuberant in style – with what is perhaps one of the densest concentrations of exclamation marks per sentence on the internet. Their pages deal equally, of not more, with entertainment, fashion and heartache as with unsettling news from Uganda or resources for the LGBT community in India.

Their contents pages seem to reflect a maturity and readiness of the queer community to move beyond merely activist issues. “We’ve moved on to a place where our magazines can deal with regular issues, like India Today or something,” said Singh, a final-year engineering student. Apphia describes Jiah as “a lifestyle magazine for LBT women”. Udayan goes even further. “We never thought of making political statements,” he said. Pink Pages is a medium of mainstreaming instead of activism. We’re a magazine for the community – if we focus only on activism, we’re not doing justice to or readers.

The editorial teams realize that this attitude could draw criticism. It could be something Jiah could get flak for”, said Nitya Vasudevan, a contributor. Still, she added, “The magazine could be a forum for complicating our ideas of sexuality.” She does this in her article, writing, “We do not always travel in pairs (or packs), our bodies sometimes look awkward we have sex (not always sinuous, curvy and softly-lit), we are not automatically and continuously monogamous, we do not ‘merge’, and we have widely different opinions on Fire.”

Besides mainstreaming isn’t only about content, but about how a magazine is bought and sold. “There should be no fear of going to a bookstore and buying a magazine and bringing it home,” Udayan said, “I want Pink Pages and other magazines to be mainstreamed with the rest of India, so we don’t need to make a big fuss about gay magazines coming out. It should be as normal as anything else.”

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Piyasree Dasgupta
IndianExpress, Aug 31, 2009

When Bombay Dost was launched in 1990, its readers couldn’t afford the comforts of being discreet, courtesy the internet. “The only ways to reach out to others were through print, post and telegraph. Many gay men knew of Bombay Dost but could not subscribe as they could not ask for a copy to be delivered home,” says Nitin Karani, editor-at-large, Bombay Dost. Nearly two decades on, Bombay Dost was re-launched with much fanfare and a crop of magazines, that address LGBT issues are making the rounds of the country. Pink Pages (www.pink-pages.co.in), an e-mag which will be out in print too very soon was almost perfectly timed, with its launch immediately after Article 377 was repealed. “Most publications that address queer issues have usually had a limited intellectual readership. Pink Pages tries to reach out to everybody irrespective of gender, sexuality etc,” says Nipun Goyal, editor-in-chief of Pink Pages. The LGBT magazine, which is the brainchild of a group of students and young professionals, has more than 30 editors, designers and web designers who contribute voluntarily.

“Bombay Dost, at its launch connected with queer people across the country, taking away the sense of isolation and disempowerment,” says Karani. Pink Pages comes at a time when vocal discrimination has been replaced with a studied silence and diplomacy. But the magazine also works with a similar objective. Apart from sections dedicated to politics, activism, health, cinema, fashion, literature, Pink Pages also has an ‘Ask your Queer Peer’ provision which helps people come out and even deal with their sexuality. “You still can’t dissociate stigma from homosexuality in the country. We try and help people deal with it from experience,” says Goyal. Trikone, a magazine, founded by two Indian techies working in the Silicon Valley, too has come a long way since its launch in 1986. Now headed by Abhay Prasad, an engineer based out of San Francisco, Trikone deals with queer issues not just in India but the whole of South Asia. “It acts as a virtual connect of sorts, letting people know about the socio-political and even cultural developments in their neighbouring countries. Often these issues get lost in the clutter of ‘more important’ news in mainstream publications,” explains Prasad who has quite a readership across the world.

“A gay magazine brings a much required visibility to the queer cause. Visibility is very important for acceptance of homosexuality in a country that still lives on moral panic,” says 22-year-old Sunetro Lahiri, a media professional. And the likes of Bombay Dost and Pink Pages, which have brought LGBT issues out on a public domain, is doing exactly that. “The magazine eschews any notion of ‘them and us’, and mirrors the inclusiveness that we would expect in a more egalitarian society. Bombay Dost targets a much larger demographic than just the urban homosexual man,” says Karani. Goyal echoes his sentiments. When you browse through their site you find interesting bits on the latest trends in couture and accessories, features on authors and books, films etc. “We are not crying ourselves hoarse over gay rights. Movies, art, fashion are things that resonate deeply in the hearts of gay people and our magazine will be instrumental in both exploring their various facets, as well as brushing up our readers on the latest in the world of cinema, arts and trends. Also, such preoccupation is not exclusive to homosexual individuals and the section probably addresses preconceived notions that people have about the LGBT community,” says Goyal. Trikone, whose readership runs into thousands, has a section completely dedicated to cultural interpretations of homosexuality. From the depiction of homosexuality in world cinema and its roots in classical literature, to the social implications of gay parades in developing countries and the significance of the first Gay Games in Sri Lanka, Trikone indulges into the cultural ramifications of its subject without turning into a mouthpiece for the LGBT community.

However, while the publication of magazines that limit themselves to queer issues is an intelligent device to homogenize the differences created by a largely patriarchal society, human rights activists hope that the society will work towards a future where media of expression will not be divided by gender, sexuality or social affiliations. “While the magazines are a step towards normalizing homosexuality in the country, we hope that there will be no need to have separate publications for women, men or gay people in future,” says Saptarshi Mondol of the Lawyers’ Collective.

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5 July 2009
Pink Pages Editorial Team
(c/o MINGLE Foundation)

The Pink Pages Editorial Board is glad to announce the release of the first issue of our magazine. Pink Pages is being released as India’s first national magazine catering to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) community, featuring articles on gay rights, health, popular culture, fashion, cinema, books and much more.

The salient features of the magazine are as follows:

• The initial issues of the magazine will be released online, free of cost. Thereafter it’ll go into print.
• The magazine will be India’s first LGBT magazine with a nationwide readership.
• This is a non-profitable community venture. Almost the entire Pink Pages team consists of students or young professionals from various fields- humanities, engineering, medicine, arts- who pooled in money and talent to successfully bring out this landmark first issue.

The website of the magazine (www.pink-pages.co.in) which allows viewers to subscribe to the magazine and read articles, went online on 1 January 2009.

Since the first issue is being launched soon after the landmark ruling of the Delhi High Court declaring homosexuality legal, its theme will be “Freedom… after 150 years”.

Also, we are thankful to Mallika Sarabhai, noted classical dancer for her words of support on this momentous occasion of the release of Pink Pages’ first issue:

“The right to be who we are, and to express our true selves freely in today’s world, is essential. Pink Pages is one more step towards this freedom. I wish it all the best.”

-Mallika Sarabhai

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Joshua Muyiwa
TimeOut, Feb 6-19 2009

When Nipun Goyal, a 21 year old Delhiite sat down early last year with a bunch of friends to talk about bringing out a nation-wide queer magazine, he knew where he had to turn for inspiration: the largest circulated gay magazine in the United States, Out. Goyal said he was drawn to American publisher Michael Goff’s idea of bringing out a magazine that aimed to appeal to high-brow advertisers by promoting them access to a marginalized audience. “Out talks about various issues without succumbing to the danger of being associated with adult material or personal advertisements.” He said over the phone. “The model makes perfect sense to us”. Goyal and his friends decided to call their magazine Pink Pages.

However, unlike Goff did in 1992, Goyal and his friends aren’t launching he publication in print. “We started it on the internet as a tester and a means to create a readership and as we get popular and have an assured readership, then it would make complete business sense for us to go into print.” he said.” The time frame we are giving ourselves is a year, and the printed copies should be available from January 2010.”

Given the fact that already some queer magazines exist in India, is there a pressing need for another one? Goyal is convinced there is. “There have been a lot of publications but they have very localized subscribers and readership.” He said. “Our idea is to launch a magazine at a national level.”

Goyal also promises that Pink Pages will be different. “It will have many flavours to offer and will appeal to everyone in the alphabet soup of sexuality.” He said.

(Note: The above article wrongly mentions that Nipun Goyal is a Delhiite. Nipun is based in Indore / Bhopal.)

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