[Reader-list] First posting for Sappho for Equality(Abir Neogy), Independent Fellow, January, 2004

[Sappho for Equality]

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The burden of isolation, the torment of intolerance, the curse of invisibility, the deep ambiguity about homosexuality and lastly the overwhelming silence about the very existence of women with same sex preference worked as the impetus to find out like-minded people to build a support from within. Even this was not that smooth. The six women from Kolkata who founded Sappho, the only support group for lesbian, bisexual and transgendered women in eastern India, had to bank on support groups from outside the city to come closer. Immediate after the release of the film “Fire” as a response to a supportive article in a leading Bengali newspaper, a series of letters came up and proved the very existence of lesbians in Kolkata and put aside all the hesitation and rethinking about being organized. Thus Sappho came into being in 20th June, 1999.  This study will narrate the organized effort of lesbians in Kolkata from its inception till date. Also it will highlight the facts about the hidden violence, which each and every woman with same sex preference comes across in life at any form.