On Friday we had the honor to interview Radha, a very interesting young woman pursuing her masters degree in law. Before the interview, we were given her dissertation about LGBTQIA+ rights, issues, and history to read and craft questions with. This dissertation highlighted some very saddening facts, like how many countries in the world today still criminalize being gay, and how only 5 in the world have outlawed very damaging conversion therapy.

The interview itself also had some very sickening stories and statistics about suicide, abuse, and rape to do with LGBTQ+ people in India. Through these stories she made clear the necessity of basic human rights and protections for the queer community of India, and her suggestion for the transition to acceptance of them was for people to accept themselves. She also stated that we’ve got to stop putting people into boxes and labels, and just let them be themselves. We’re not going to make any civil progress by stereotyping people and having them act in order to fit their label.