Strength TogetHER 10 - Session 5

Feb 20,2021.

Strength togetHER is a safe virtual space where girls from different backgrounds come together and share their stories. We believe in rising ourselves by lifting up others. We walk with the motto of “girls supporting girl”. 

On the evening of 20th of February 2021, we talked on the topic of “LGBTQ”. Our topic for the session was, “Love wins and it is all that matters.” 

Our session was moderated by Mx. Soph Gautam, a queer writer, photographer, and advocate for equality. They recently graduated with a BA in International Relations and Media Communications. They are passionate about feminism, mental health, queer liberation, and fat liberation. They use their photography and art to talk about taboo topics and call attention to social causes.

As usual, we started with getting to know our moderator and moved on to hearing from amazing speakers who spoke their heart out and shared personal stories. This session was a little different than usual.

We had the most productive couple of hours. The stories of coming out, the struggle of identity crisis, the fear, the rejection made it a wholesome of emotional moments.

One of our speaker shared an incident that happened during school. She shared the story of a boy who was bullied for feminine. That is one of the harshest realities that occur in most schools around here. She also addressed the issue regarding public toilets not friendly for all genders, issues faced by LGBTQ communities even in so called developed and strong governance system nations such as Japan. We also talked about Joe Biden restoring the right to equality in military inclusion of the United States of America. The speaker also shared the struggle about LGBTQ people had to deal during the recent Covid-19 pandemic wherein the anatomical differences were treated differently and were often ignored and not cared.

Also addressing the job opportunity struggle the people have to go through, during the adoption of children and legalizing same sex marriages. We often use the word “Chakka” to tease and bully the feminine men but the word itself isn’t a good descriptor and doesn’t exist anywhere in the dictionary either. It’s been used for years now yet is just an assumed word and not a real one. 

The other speaker continued to talk about the role that teachers play during school. She talked about even the teachers not aware and educated about the issues and becoming a bully themselves. Overtime most of us became aware through social media and movies but the portrayal of our communities are often in reality different. In most movies they show the transgender people are the blessings and they seek to receive the blessing too but in reality , the same community is teased, blamed and shut down in the name of spreading hatred and committing sin. Overtime things are changing and more positive space is created. Even in Nepal, various social media platforms such as Mitini run by Malvika Subba and Herney Katha cover the story of people from LGBTQ community and addressed their concerns.

Two of our speakers shared how they were inspired from the stories of same sex couple and even wrote something based on it. There were two of our speakers sharing their story of coming out as a bisexual. The stories that came about the struggle that one goes through the coming out phase, the fear, the confidence, the process that keeps on continuing was really inspiring to all of us. 

To address the various issues and concerns that we had, our moderator gave us reflection on our stories and we discussed about so many things that were new to us as well. They introduced us to the issues where homosexuality is put under the unnatural sex.

One of the highlighting issue she address was about the cultural value of individualism and collectivism. The other was about the face saving eastern culture and that it is a really big concern especially addressing Japan which is known to have one of the best governance system yet it fails to include all of its people. We also talked about the myths that society have created about the LGBTQ community and how irrelevant are those superstitious thoughts. We learned about a lot of new things that were really important.

This session was a really inspiring and enlightening one wherein we got the opportunity to educate ourselves about the rising concerns and interact with an amazing moderator. The couple of hours interaction was indeed the most valuable and worthy one. 

This blog is written by Samikshya Aryal, an undergraduate of Bachelors in Development Studies. She prefers pronouns; she/her and sexually identifies herself as a bisexual. She has developed a keen interest in literature and is an aspiring poet. Beside an avid reader and enthusiastic learner, she wants to travel as much. 

-Samikshya Aryal, Cohort Coordinator (LOKOPAKAR)