Is it normal to be gay? Do lesbians have friends? These questions are asked by many, who believe that heteronormativity is the norm of the day. Saathi, IIT Bombay’s LGBTQ group, questions these questions and is trying to do something different to connect the LGBTQ+ community to students on its campus and encourage healthy conversations about sexuality. They are breaking stereotypes about the community by providing positive examples of resilience and courage to the students.
Saathi’s orientation video shows students from the IIT Bombay campus sharing their experience with their friends when they revealed their sexual orientation to them. Coming out in the open about their sexuality made them feel more liberated as a person. For their friends, the friendship wasn’t hampered because sexuality made no difference to the dynamic of the relationship.
Stereotypes of the LGBTQ+ community pervade many institutions across the country, and Saathi’s initiative is a step towards [envoke_twitter_link]connecting students to people who question the given social standards of sexuality [/envoke_twitter_link]and bring up conversations about the various paradigms of sexuality and the LGBTQ+ community.
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