In Kerala, LGBTQIA+ persons are facing an organised hate campaign

Trigger warning: Homophobia, queerphobiaOn the eve of the 12th Kerala Queer Pride March in Malappuram, activists Dinu Veyil, Gargi H, and a few others were coming out of their hotel room at the Manorama Round to have tea, when they spotted a group of people erecting anti-LGBTQIA+ banners on the premises. The images and writings were hateful — one of them alleging that queer persons were “sexualising children,” while another claimed the “mazhavil (rainbow) mafia” was “forcing our daughters and sisters” to undergo painful surgeries. Yet another directly targeted a trans couple who recently gave birth to a biological child in Kerala, alongside the question: “A man who gives birth?” The hoardings were just a part of a hate campaign unleashed over the past few months against Kerala’s LGBTQIA+ community by a group that calls itself ‘anti-woke’ — a coordinated attack that has pushed several queer persons into severe psychological distress..Malappuram was hosting its first Queer Pride this year, a two-day event held on October 29 and 30. Thousands of LGBTQIA+ persons had arrived in town to assert and celebrate their right to live and love, as they joined in with allies in cultural festivities, literary seminars, and awareness events. The youth organisation ‘YES Kerala’, however, was determined to disrupt the celebrations. Four of their alleged members even publicly harassed a group of transgender persons, by using abusive and transphobic language against them.The police and municipal authorities were quick to react to the transgressions, taking down the queerphobic hoardings erected by the group as soon as they were informed of the incident. Several members of the group were also arrested as they attempted to obstruct the march. But even police action has done little to hinder the group from propagating false and inflammatory claims against LGBTQIA+ persons, blatantly attempting to incite the public against the marginalised group..What is ‘YES Kerala’?YES Kerala is an acronym for Youth Enrichment Society of Kerala, which describes itself as a non-governmental organisation based in Kerala. The organisation claims it was launched with the intention of “protecting the younger generation” from “wokeism” and “rainbow propaganda”. Since its inception, the group has been sharing posts and stories alleging that queerness is unscientific, anti-religion, and anti-women. According to the profile available on YES Kerala's social media, the president of the organisation is Shibin TK..In a Facebook post prior to the pride event, YES Kerala had claimed that the event would cause the “downfall” of Malappuram district by “spreading diseases like AIDS,” and that no one there would be able to donate blood after this. “Such events can lead to many other types of social degradation. Therefore, stand united against such events that destroy the peaceful atmosphere of Malappuram,” the post read. Dinu Veyil, founder of a voluntary youth organisation called Dhisha Kerala, says YES Kerala’s primary modus operandi is to make sexually coloured remarks against queer persons and unleash targeted cyber attacks from several fake accounts. “They claim they are a youth welfare organisation, but their main agenda is anti-LGBTQIA+ propaganda. YES Kerala and others of their kind have three main aims — create public outrage against queer persons, trigger and destroy the mental health of community members, and spread unscientific information,” says Dinu. He adds that there have been several instances of cyberattacks by such anti-queer persons destroying the mental health of community members and pushing them into suicidal thoughts. YES Kerala was started around May this year, and quickly gained notoriety for their uscientific and queerphobic posts made in the aftermath of the demise of trans man bodybuilder Praveen Nath. Their social media posts have been widely criticised for questioning and demeaning the existence of queer persons, who are already a marginalised community.Read: Trans man’s suicide in Kerala, concern over spread of queerphobic groups.The hoardings YES Kerala put up in Malappuram were similar to these social media posts, hateful and deliberately triggering. Some posters claimed it was “biologically impossible” for a man to be pregnant and that this was happening as part of the “mazhavil [rainbow] agenda” — eyes and chests of the trans men in the posters hidden with white bands for good measure. Others accused trans women of “disguising themselves as women” to enter the washrooms of “our sisters and daughters.”.After the activists spotted the hateful messages and alerted the police, the flex boards were removed immediately. Police and municipal officials took action in accordance with a Kerala High Court order passed last year, which barred people from placing unauthorised flag posts, boards, or banners in public spaces in the state. But this did not deter YES Kerala, as smaller posters with similar messages were once again pasted on public walls the very next day. Pamphlets carrying similar texts were also directly distributed to people. Some of them claimed that people in same-sex relationships are highly susceptible to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) such as AIDs, further alleging that the LGBTQIA+ community has been “isolating those who do not support this trend of [homosexual] relationships.” Malappuram police arrested eight people aged between 19 and 30 for trying to cause disturbance during the pride march. They were found with flags of YES Kerala and placards with vile claims against the community, and have been booked under section 151 (arrest to prevent the commission of cognisable offences) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). The arrests prompted members of the organisation to take to social media, claiming that they only opposed people who were trying to “destroy the moral values” of Malappuram. “If that was our mistake, we are proud of it. We will keep telling the truth louder,” they wrote..On November 1, Anamika Leo, a trans rights activist and member of the Kozhikode Transgender Justice Board, took to social media to share details of the harassment they faced after the pride march, at the hands of a gang who kept telling them that they were men impersonating women. “Some people claiming to be office bearers of YES kerala stopped us and insulted our gender. They behaved very badly with us and tried to attack us, said Anamika, who is also the district secretary of Democratic Transgenders Federation of Kerala (DTFK). A video of trans persons’ reaction to their insulting questions was then edited out of context and circulated across social media, she added..Speaking to TNM, Anamika recalls what happened on October 28, the eve of the pride rally. “Four of us had stepped out of our room to have tea, when a group of people suddenly stopped us and started recording us on their mobile camera. When we asked them why they were taking our videos without our permission, they denied doing so. But we could clearly see that their camera was still on. Then they proceeded to use abusive and crude language against us, claiming we are men dressed up as women and making vulgar comments about our genitals. We called the police soon and they ran away upon seeing the officials. But later, they cropped the video such that only our angry replies to their harassment are visible, and started sharing it on social media as if we were the aggressors,” she says. In this regard too, Malappuram police have registered a case against four identifiable persons under Sections 41 ("Special Law" - deals with handling cases which has a law specifically designed to handle a particular subject), 294(b) (obscene acts and song), 506 (criminal intimidation), 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 18(d) (offences and penalties for harming/injuring/endangering the life, safety, health or well-being of trans persons) of Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, for using vulgar language with an intent to humiliate them. Anamika points out that India is a country with a Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act. “They [the attackers] do not seem to be aware of that. Verbal abuse against a trans person is a criminal offence in India,” she says. All of YES Kerala’s activities are against the court’s word and the law, says Dinu. “The apex court has upheld in its NALSA judgement, and even in the recent Supriyo judgement (marriage equality case), that queer persons have the right to a dignified life. According to Section 18(d) of Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, harming a trans person’s mental and physical well-being is an offence,” he says. If these attacks were against some religious groups or other communities, serious offences would have been slapped on them, adds Dinu. “But there is a legal gap when it comes to the LGBTQIA+ community, which becomes a problem while tackling these issues,” he says. Gargi H of Vanaja Collective, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that helps LGBTQIA+ persons and other marginalised communities, says the aggressive and disruptive behaviour by these groups is simply a reflection of their regressive mindset. “There were attempts to give this issue a communal angle, with insinuations that the opposition was coming from a certain religion. But we are sure, it was only YES Kerala — which has members from all religions — that tried to create problems for us before and after the Malappuram event. The pride march was entirely successful otherwise. The group was apparently preparing to stick a lot more posters and banners across Malappuram, but we were able to nip that plan in the bud with the help of police intervention,” Gargi says..Become a subscriber and get exclusive content.Consistent cyber attacks The attack against LGBTQIA+ persons in Malappuram was simply an extension of the attacks they face online on a day-to-day basis, queer persons tell TNM. According to Viji Rahman, a trans rights activist, members of these groups run certain anonymous accounts and pages. “They use these handles to leave crude comments below posts made by LGBTQIA+ persons. They also put up hateful posts and videos about us, but they do it only as stories, which means we cannot comment below them or share these posts and call them out. These stories also disappear in a day, so there is little record of how they spread disinformation and hatred,” she says. Activist and actor Sheethal Shyam says those who resort to such cyber attacks are mostly well-educated youngsters who know how to use technology and social media. “They use severe religious sentiments to target us. Their attacks are not only anti-queer, but also anti-feminist. Back when Clubhouse was all the rage, a group of people claiming to be ‘meninists’ conducted several sessions on the app targeting us. They espouse a kind of extremely toxic masculinity. They argue that women should stay “below” men, that people with disabilities should stay at home, and that none of them should have any opinions of their own. They also blatantly spread queerphobia and transphobia.” Sheethal says the persistent nature of the cyber attacks they have been facing had prompted the activists to inform Malappuram police and get protection ahead of the event. “Several members of YES Kerala had arrived in Malappuram specifically to cause disruption at the pride. But with adequate police protection and immediate action from the side of the police, untoward incidents were avoided,” she adds. Anagh, vice president of Dhisha Kerala, says YES Kerala has been conducting campaigns across the state against LGBTQIA+ persons, especially inside college campuses. “They argue that queerness is ‘mental illness’ that ‘can be cured’, and dangerously advocate for conversion therapies,” he says. ‘Conversion therapy’ or ‘reparative therapy’ is one of the Sexual Orientation Change Efforts (SOCE) practised by some medical practitioners as well as religious groups. The practice, which was banned in India in September 2022, includes administering medication and electric shock in an attempt to ‘fix’ a queer person’s gender identity. The National Medical Commission (NMC), the primary Indian regulatory body that regulates medical education and medical professionals, has deemed the practice “professional misconduct”. Even in the most recent marriage equality judgement, Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud ordered the government to ensure that ‘treatments’ offered by doctors or other persons that aim to change gender identity or sexual orientation are ceased with immediate effect. Anagh says that though conversion therapies are banned, there is no law in India specifically criminalising the practice and its propagation, which gives queerphobic persons some leniency to advocate for it. “They view LGBTQIA+ persons through a reductive lens, focusing only on aspects such as sexual relationships and genitalia. They don’t recognise community members as citizens with democratic rights. They also try to twist this issue by applying a communal angle to it. Their allegation is that “queerness is against religion and culture,” and hence by extension LGBTQIA+ individuals are also against them. But our fight is not against culture or religion, it is against heteronormativity and the normalisation of binary,” he says. The organisers of 12th Kerala Pride subsequently released a statement detailing the opposition they faced while organising the event. “Social media accounts of organisers were hacked, and many community members faced threats. On the eve of Pride March, several flex boards were erected and pamphlets distributed in Malappuram town… Trans persons who arrived for the event were subjected to sexual verbal abuse by some organisation members, and a police case was registered against the abusers… Organised activities by some to block and mock the socio-political activism of Queer Pride, which has been going on for a long time in Kerala, motivates us to continue our activities with more enthusiasm. Your propaganda of lies gives us more visibility. We firmly believe that you can't misguide people who hold honesty, science, the right to life, and above all love and liberty as their core values,” it said.