" You know, gay , lesbian, bisexual , transgender - people are people " - Judith Light.

Whether you are a singer or have a band, we need YOU and YOUR MUSIC for our upcoming film 'Rainbows Are Real' !

Come and audition for the background score in the movie and hit the right notes of change !

The casting for Rainbows Are Real are just around the corner!

Think you've got what it takes ? Hurry and audition for a role in the movie and don't miss your chance for being famous!

All ages from 6 to 35 are welcomed.
HURRY :D

Contact us on - rainbowsarereal@gmail.com

Wake Up India

I  am a 21-year-old transgender — a woman trapped in the body of a man. I am an outcast, abhorred by society. My family disowned me when I told them I wanted to live like a woman. I am pursuing BA from DU through correspondence. To earn a living, I became a sex worker. There was no other option as no one was willing to give me work. But even this job is not easy for I put my life in danger every night when I roam the streets, looking for clients.

There are nearly 10,000 transgenders in Delhi, but we never move in groups because that deters clients from approaching us. That makes me an easy prey to goons, drunk truck drivers and pickpockets. Many a times, I have been brutally raped after being robbed of my money and jewellery. I often come back home — battered and bleeding. If you asked me how many times I have been raped, I will have no answer for I have lost count. I have often been hospitalised with help from NGOs due to the brutal sexual assaults.

Once I was going home at night after attending a friend’s party and took a shortcut through a park close to my home. Five men were hiding behind the bush. They attacked me, pushed me to the ground and pounced on me. The assault was so brutal that it ruptured my breast implant. I started bleeding. A few passersby brought me home. I was bed-ridden for the next few weeks. I had no money. Life became hell those few weeks.

‘Please us, or get raped’
My most cruel assaulters are often the men in uniform. Yes, the cops, who blackmail us to pay hafta so that we can carry on with our job as sex workers. Refusal to please them means lathis, kicks in the mouth, abuses and finally, rape. I have often been raped by cops in parks, and even inside lock-ups. Some often stop me on the road and ask for a quick oral sex. Even when I step out from home for personal work, they insist on sex. Any resistance is met with abuses and torture. At times, I try and run away from the cops. I once even bit their hand in a bid to escape.

I was once looking for clients in front of a park when four cops approached me. I was alone at that time. “If you want to solicit, you will have to please us first (Yahan khada hona chahti hai to pehle hamare sath karna hoga),” one of them said. When I resisted, they dragged me to a secluded spot and took turns at raping me. They raped me for about five hours and made me perform oral sex. They also beat me up, took away my belongings file:///Users/ayushikulsreshtha/Desktop/2301wakeup1.jpgand left me writhing in pain.

I managed to reach home with great difficulty and was taken to a clinic the next morning. I was at the same spot a few months later, when one of those cops recognised me. He said, “So, you are back. Last time it was four of us. This time, it will be eight.”

Horror inside lock-up
I was once held by the police for roaming on the roads late in the night. They arrested me, told me what I do was illegal and threatened to book me under severe sections of the IPC.  I was taken to a lock-up. The moment I stepped in, I heard cops say, “Ab 6-7 din aaram se kat jayenge (Now we can have fun for the next six-seven days).”

I was locked up in a room and raped by many cops that night. I screamed in pain, but they took no pity. “Why are you screaming? Don’t you do this every night,’’ one of them said. I lay there, naked, the whole night. I was released in the morning with the help of some friends who brought a sheet to cover me up.

Where do I go to get my complaint registered? There is no platform for someone like me voice my grievances. If I speak up, I can even get killed. Who will assure me of my safety? I often pray that no one is ever born a transgender.

NGOs confirm rape by cops
Rights activists, who work with transgenders and bisexuals, say such incidents are a common occurrence. “I have come across several such cases of brutal sexual assault on transgenders by the cops. They come and narrate their horror tales to us. A transgender reported being raped by cops for weeks inside a famous Delhi prison. We can’t do much in such cases because the victims themselves back out from identifying the cops, fearing revenge, and we have no proof,” says lawyer and activist Shashi Bhushan of Naaz.

Transgenders are often raped by cops if they refuse to pay them hafta on time or refuse free sex, says Jatin Kumar, project coordinator, DART, another LGBT rights NGO. “Transgenders have no faith in the system. All we can do is get the victims treated,” says Kumar.

Rudrani Chettri, director, Mitr Trust, says she comes across at least one such case of sexual abuse in which policemen are the culprits. “When a transgender is new in sex trade, she doesn’t know the rules. When a cop asks for sex, she tries to run away. That’s when she is chased and put in a PCR van. The rape takes place inside the lock-up, often in the most brutal manner,” Chettri said.

The Delhi Police has promised to make its men more gender-sensitive. Hope they are reading this.
(As told to Shara Ashraf) 

Article taken from Hindustan Times - http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/I-was-raped-by-cops-multiple-times/Article1-998338.aspx

The same fight, worldwide - Transgenders

     We live in a culture of disrespect towards trans people, only compounded by laws on the books that fail to uphold justice equally. But this isn't just about a distant minority, the status of trans people in this country matters not only because we are a marginalized minority – though that is in itself significant – but also because it has broader implications for who we are as a nation. How do we treat each other? To what standard do we hold our government?

Transgender student Alex Sennello wrote about her experience of being a transgender high school student in the US. According to Sennello, schools aren't doing enough to protect students like her – and broad anti-bullying campaigns have oversimplified the unique challenges facing transgender students:

"Only when schools are committed to an overhaul will we stop seeing sexually and gender diverse young people harassed and marginalized. Students like me need be able to walk into classrooms where their gender identities are not assumed; find textbooks that include their history; listen to lessons that recognize their existence; use the bathroom without feeling scared or disingenuous; and have their peers, teachers and administrators understand that the identities and experiences of queer people are natural and valuable." 

The fight is the same worldwide. Join our visual campaign - Rainbows are Real.

( excerpts from www.guardian.co.uk.)

Tale of a Reviled Effeminate

"Why can't I be addressed to as 'She', when I like being addressed so?"

"The society, as I said, has no right to meddle in setting up standards for me! Its just now that I am entitled right under Article 377, but before that, was I expected to stay celibate? I am lampooned for my queer gestures, my way of living and my interests. Why is that I am having an unrequited love for you all?! Am I not entitled to be loved and respected the same way?! "

                                                                                                     - she lamented


Her family and comrades made her redundant, a long back, when she wasn't even aware of the outside world...
She walked, as new ways unfurled, made up her mind for menial jobs, and sated herself with scant clothes and food..
"I was vilified and traduced in the workplace.....the reverberations of their castigations still hurts my soul""
                                                                                                         - she quivered

We have human rights activists, animal rights activists, and even environment activists. Where is your vigour gone when I can see a living being disparaged to death!!!
What about the conscious and apoplectic human rights' fanatics who have been arguing against infringement of rights? Ain't the paying heed?


Well, after being ostracized by the society, she walked further....

"I met some drunkards, they asked me to entertain them, I did so, I wanted something for my stomach!"
                                                                                                         - she stammered

How many of us are ready to sell our dignity for the sake of our stomach?
None of us, indeed!
If you'd prefer to die instead, get ready to accept the tag of 'coward' against your name.
I am certainly not an apologist for selling one's dignity for stomach, rather want to stand against all apologists defending the hideous monsters who have left no alternative for the victims who have been pushed to breathe in this purgatory. Indeed, we are able to maintain our dignity simply because we are not subjected to these atrocities.

And the tale continues, as she gets ready the other day to raise her voice against the discrimination.

"The men accused me being insolent, buffeted me and assaulted ...But I was firm in my decision. I refused to toe the line."

"and now the world calls me an 'Eunuch' "

This is what they did to her!!!

"Its not me who is an impediment or a burden to this society, rather its them, those masqueraded monsters who deserve to be jettisoned, banished from their houses and the society. If they ought not accept their fault, then why am I blamed?. Where has the judicial system of my country gone? "
                                                                                              - she asked reproachfully

I couldn't answer, for my own country people have donned despise for one another..
Whilst these incidents are happening, half of us are in trance, or infused in our lives or are fighting to win a fair whack of contracts for ourselves.
This attitude of ours is certainly ominous.
Then what can be done?
Should we set for a crusade to find this anonymous aforementioned personality and commiserate, or penalize the culprits in a court?!

I don't have an answer to this question. This is a tale of every other transgender , who has been a victim of aversion for no reason.
Lets ask ourselves, why are they loathed to death, smothered because we can't see them taking in their whack of fresh air, strangulated because their act of scourging is pestering us, when they  importunate our society for due respect and reverence...

"I haven't upped the ante for unaffordable opulent accoutrements, but just for my dignity, which is my birthright"
                                                                                            - she asserts



                                                                                          - Sruthi Iyer

Rainbows Are Real ~ about the film

Speculating  the plight of transgenders all over the world, we think that they ought to get their rights and dignity that they deserve.

 Everyday, we expect that initiatives should be taken for the amelioration, but we forget that, the most imperative step is an affirmative action emanating from our behavior.

The film "Rainbows are Real", is our  first step towards depicting the reality of the straight-jacketed  mindset of the society, towards our own people. The film tries to capture the multiple facets of the lives of transgenders through a docu-fiction style of storytelling, along with the use of vibrant colors, indicating the spectrum of emotions in the stories of the characters involved. The evolution of our initiative can be attributed to the heresic beliefs of the society to accept a breed of their own civilization.  

The film intends to use various modes of communication to keep this issue alive in masses and bring a social change. Documentaries are often accused of its boring nature, especially due to the lack of creative camera tricks, and because of the monotonous style of narration.  These accusations can be objected, if the documentaries are more riveting, and are made to depict astounding facts, in an eclectic style.

Likewise, the film intends to set up an  environment which would try to bring the squalor images of the reality. The idea is to have visually pleasing and eye-catching factors like edgy editing and lighting, and other characteristics of documentaries designed to enhance the narration, which would make the experience more cinematic, and infuse a new dynamism in the field, thereby creating a new market for documentaries.

Transgenders have been continously ostracised from every sphere of public lives . This film is an attempt to discover the lives of transgenders and their engagements with society in an increasingly globalised world. The story is presented in a docu-fiction format, where experiences and plight of people from varied backgrounds are depicted. It moves from the launda dancers of Uttar Pradesh, the Aravanis of Tamil Nadu,  to the Hijra community and their complex guru-chela relationship.

The film also sheds light on the landmark Delhi High Court judgment of 2009, which scrapped portions of the Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. Justice Muralidharan quoted the saying of Nehruvian era, ‘Words are magic things often enough, but even the magic of words sometimes cannot convey the magic of the human spirit and of a Nation’s passion (The Resolution) seeks very feebly to tell the world of what we have thought or dreamt of for so long, and what we now hope to achieve in the near future.” 

The film tries to revive the words, and hopes to suffuse the feeling of brotherhood and equality in the genes of the society.

Documentaries, of the aforementioned kind, are generally expected to be dull and depressing, but the film would also try to focus on the dreams, aspirations and inspirations of the transgenders, that help them to surge forward and keep the fight for equality, justice and dignity on.

"Just the genre can't perturb a sense, unless the inner sense gets, by itself"

                                                                                                           

                    - Sruthi Iyer