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Siliguri hosts LGBTQ Fashion Show to raise awareness about community challenges
The fashion show aimed to raise awareness among key stakeholders, particularly societal leaders, about the challenges faced by the LGBTQ community.
An LGBTQ Fashion Show was organised in Siliguri where more than 28 participants from various districts of North Bengal participated in it. Siliguri Pride Walk, a platform for LGBTQ communities, organised the community-based LGBTQ Fashion Show in Siliguri. The show was organised to make the stakeholders, especially the people holding important positions in society, aware of the problems and issues faced by the LGBTQ community.
Bodhi Satta, one of the organising members, said, "Our all participants did their own design and make-up. The community people want to show their talents and speak about personal rights from this platform. There is no marriage law, no adoption law, no inheritance law. So, we want the government to look into the issue and see the community people as normal as part of society. People should also make their thinking smart and accept the community as human beings." (Also read: North East India Fashion Week showcases the richness of handlooms and handicrafts from the region )
Chandni Roy, a participant from Siliguri, said that it's great that the committee organised such a kind of show, through it, they can show their talents. There is still some negativity in society about the activities of the LGBT community. "But we can prove that they are like others in society."
"There is still a lot of discrimination in society. He likes to dress up like a woman. He likes to wear a saree and do make-up. But people use slang language while passing through them. That should be stopped," Vivek Ghosh, a participant from Raiganj, said.
The transgender community is still trying to prove themselves and make themselves acceptable in society after the Supreme Court scrapped Article 377, decriminalising same-sex relations between consenting adults in 2018.
