At Gender Champions, we believe that every individual of any gender or orientations need to have equal rights and following this line of thought an event called "Social Panchayat" was organised by the club on April 2, 2019.
The theme – “Transphobia and Homophobia”, resonated with prejudice against transgender, the queer community and was also a tribute to the community people for their fight against the same.
Student participation was accepted in teams of 2-4 and the event itself was divided into two rounds – the first one being the elimination round wherein the participants were given various quotes by famous people aligning with the theme and were asked to present their outlook / views on the same. Various perspectives focusing on individual identity, importance of self esteem and acceptance, were discussed and only five teams qualified to move to the final round.
In the final round all teams were given on-the-spot case-scenarios that they had a time limit of 4 minutes to mull over, followed by a presentation by the team members similar to the first round except that at the end of each team’s performance, the audience, the ‘Panch’ (the panel of 5 cross-questioning experts) and the other teams were allowed to cross-question based on the content delivered by the said team. Also, the topic was made open-house for all the teams to challenge so they had a chance to present their views on same as well. This in turn led to an open discussion of ideas and raised flags about some of the most crucial matters concerning the LGBTQ community like lack of emergency healthcare for the LGBTQ, sensitivity training for healthcare staff, the portrayal of the community members in movies and the traditional approach towards them by the society.
The motive of the event was to provide a platform to the people who want to remove the stigma and taboo regarding the LGBTQ community and want to be the voice of justice, while making others aware about the still-prevalent prejudices that we frequently turn a blind-eye to.