Community, care and the idea of a ‘chosen family’ deeply informs Nazariya co-director Rituparna Borah’s feminist activism and organising.

The Nazariya Foundation, in collaboration with Sappho for Equality and Sahayatrika, has created a set of guidelines. Varsha and Rituparna Borah authored the guidelines, with Mihir Samson and Amritnanda Chakravorty serving as advisors for this initiative.

After a point, the court’s lengthy verdict was met with confusion. “Are they approving it or not?” one person asked. Eventually, an air of resignation set in once it became clear that the apex court had declined to legalise same-sex marriage.

The Delhi-based queer indigenous activist talks about the need to understand the layers within the LGBTQIA+ community and more

Some of the petitions in the marriage equality case argue for more than the right to marry. They ask for the right to a chosen family.

The one thing Indians hear unanimously, irrespective of which part of the country we grew up in, is – "family is everything." We are repeatedly told that a person's family will be there for them when no one else will. We are told that there is no bond like the familial bond.

How Assam's Rituparna Borah is fighting a court battle for legalizing same sex marriage in India

A conversation on LGBTQIA+ Leadership in Times of COVID-19 with Anish Gawande, Founder of The Pink List; Rituparna Borah, Co-Founder of Nazariya QFRG; and Grace Banu, Founder of Trans Rights Now Collective The panel will be moderated by Rafiul Alom Rahman, Founder of The Queer Muslim Project.

Nazariya QFRG organises Our Lives Our Tales (OLOT), a series of talks by people who have lived queer lives and fought battles for the queer movement, as a way of preserving and passing along oral histories that might otherwise be lost with them.

This interview is part of our Pride 2020 series spotlighting LGBTQI+ Activists around the world. In this instalment, Aapurv and Jenny spoke with Ritambhara Mehta and Rituparna Borah from Nazariya and organisation in India.