Events

Join us in person or online !

Date: February 1, 2025

Day: Saturday

Time: 7:30 pm IST

Where: New Delhi LGBTQIA+ Center
Online: Join us on Zoom (link will be shared upon registration)

We’re thrilled to host the India premiere of Trans Dudes with Lady Cancer by filmmakers Yee Won Chong and Brooks Nelson—a free event open to the public, both online and offline!

Register now to reserve your spot: https://tinyurl.com/TDWLC

Film Synopsis

What are the chances? That two transgender masculine people living under the same roof were diagnosed with “lady cancer” in the same month? One with breast cancer and the other with ovarian cancer. Trans Dudes with Lady Cancer is a courageous and personal story about the filmmakers’ navigating their journey within a medical system that is scrambling to figure out how to provide affirming care for transgender people.

The goal of the film and program is to highlight how the medical, legal and social aspects of gender transition impact the health care provided to transgender people. It aims to raise awareness of healthcare challenges faced by transgender individuals, foster understanding among healthcare professionals about providing affirming, inclusive care, and highlight legal hurdles like navigating insurance, documentation, and family formation.

Following the screening, there will be a Q&A with the filmmakers and panel discussion with community leaders to delve deeper into these critical issues.

Yee Won Chong (Filmmaker) : Yee Won uses their lived experience as a political asylee from Malaysia and community-organizing background to uncover our commonalities and our shared struggles. As an advocate of transgender justice, Yee Won Chong gave a TEDx talk, Beyond the Gender Binary, weaving his personal story about being a transgender immigrant with practical tips on how to be a good ally. Yee Won also provides transgender inclusion training to workplaces and college campuses.

Brooks Nelson (Filmmaker) : An award-winning filmmaker and the founder and director of Boxxo Productions, Brooks strives to create artistically excellent socially relevant films that feature stories of marginalized communities. He made Switch: A Community in Transition, a documentary that explores the impact of a gender transition – not on the individual going through transition, but on the surrounding community of family, friends, co-workers, and others.

Dr. Aqsa Shaikh (Medical Practitioner and Activist) : Dr. Aqsa is an out and proud transgender woman, academician and researcher. She is one of India’s First Transgender Doctors and a vocal advocate for rights-based Gender Justice for Transgender persons in India and globally. She is a Professor of Community Medicine at Hamdard Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Jamia Hamdard, Delhi and Patient Safety Officer of HAHC Hospital. She undertakes research and advocacy for the inclusion of Transgender and Disability communities in the healthcare sector. She is also a TEDx Speaker, a poet, and a practitioner of Theatre. 

Gautam (he/they): is an experienced programs and communications professional specialising in sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice (SRHRJ), as well as LGBTQ+ advocacy. Currently, he serves as Senior Manager in the Communications and Brand department at Tata Projects. At Safe Access, he worked to build awareness and train queer-affirmative healthcare providers, while also offering emotional and psychosocial support as a peer support provider to queer-trans* community members. Gautam has also served as Co-Chair and Board Member at TWEET Foundation, where they focused on empowering the transmasculine community through resource building, community development, and providing shelter and peer support. Additionally, they contributed as a Co-Investigator with Sangath on the iHearTransMHPrep project, curating medical resources to prepare for future healthcare emergencies.

This screening is part of Safe Access’s efforts to raise awareness in the Indian context about the critical healthcare needs of transgender individuals and foster meaningful discussions within the non-profit and healthcare sectors. This will be an opportunity for us to learn from each other’s experiences in supporting transgender individuals, build connections with other organisations working in this field, and advocate for change to improve healthcare access and support for transgender communities.

👥 Hosting Partner: LGBTQIA+ Centre
🤝 Community Partners: GLAD Foundation & Misfyt Trans Youth Foundation  

Don’t miss this chance to this inspiring and educational evening and be part of a critical conversation! Register today!

Follow us on Instagram @SafeAccess for more updates and hope to see you at the screening!

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Date: June 15th

Day: Saturday

Time: 6-6.30 pm

Where: Instagram LIVE

We’re thrilled to have an incredible panel to discuss the importance of the HPV vaccine for queer and trans communities:

Yash (Moderator): Love, Sex, and Stories are the three important words for Yash, a 25-year-old queer person from Delhi. Founder of Official Humans of Queer, Yash has been named in Forbes Asia’s 30 under 30 for social impact. An advocate for safer sexual practices among queer folks, Yash is also the Vice-President at Impulse New Delhi. They bring a wealth of experience from their impactful work and engaging discussions on HIV and sexual health.

Dr. Tanya (Healthcare Provider): Known as Dr. Cuterus, Dr. Tanya is a pioneer in medical content creation in India. With a background from the University of Oxford, she has become the most followed medical professional in India. Dr. Tanya’s work focuses on sexual, reproductive, and menstrual health education, aiming to create an equitable, healthier, and happier world through science, humour, and education.

Gautam (Safe Access): Gautam (he/they) is a young community activist, organizer, and mobilizer. At Safe Access, Gautam trains and builds awareness among queer affirmative healthcare providers and serves as a peer support provider. He passionately advocates for equitable healthcare access and sexual and reproductive health rights and justice (SRHRJ) for queer-trans* communities in India.

Topics We Will Cover:
1. What is HPV? – Understanding the importance of HPV vaccination for LGBTQ+ communities
2. Accessibility of the HPV Vaccine: – Where to get vaccinated in India and associated costs.
3. Overcoming Barriers: – Challenges queer individuals face in accessing the HPV vaccine and how healthcare providers can address them.
4. Vaccine Side Effects: – Discussing any potential side effects of the HPV vaccine.
5. Vaccination Schedule: – Recommended age groups and the vaccination timeline.
6. HPV Prevention: – Additional ways to prevent HPV infection and the importance of regular screening.

How This Session Will Help:
1. Raise Awareness: Highlight the critical importance of the HPV vaccine for queer and trans communities.
2. Improve Accessibility: Provide information on how and where to get vaccinated in India.
3. Address Barriers: Offer solutions to overcome challenges in accessing the vaccine.
4. Health Education: Educate on side effects, prevention methods, and the importance of regular screening.

Don’t miss out on this important conversation! Follow us on Instagram @SafeAccess for updates and tune in for expert insights and live Q&A. Let’s work together for a healthier future!

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Date: May 11th

Day: Saturday

Time: 5 to 6 pm

Venue: TAPISH Foundation, Mahalakshmi Nagar, Indore

Register here: https://forms.gle/165qbDUbHBHb4RBR8 (Registration is mandatory)

“Power of Peer Support” workshop by Safe Access in collaboration with TAPISH Foundation. The “Power of Peer Support” is part of the Community Wellbeing Project.

This session is crafted for the queer and trans communities, providing a deep dive into the concept of peer support—a system where individuals with similar experiences provide support, grounded in empathy and shared understanding. Discover how this powerful form of support not only helps tackle the unique challenges and societal stigmas we face but also fosters a nurturing environment for emotional and mental well-being.

Join us to understand the role of peer support in enhancing community resilience. Whether you’re on the journey to find support or to become a supportive presence, this workshop will equip you with the necessary insights and tools to strengthen both your life and the wider community.

The “Power of Peer Support” is part of the Community Wellbeing Project. Community Wellbeing Project is a free and confidential Peer Support Service with an objective to strengthen community resources to respond to the emotional struggles we face as queer-trans individuals due to the stigma and discrimination from society and from our own families, friends and co-workers. This program is based on the principles and values of peer support such as lived experience as knowledge, subjectivity and involvement of self as a resource to work with distress and promote wellbeing.

“We are here for you”

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Date : June 27th

Day: Saturday

Time: 4 to 5:30 pm, Over Zoom

Safe Access and Law Schools’ Queer Alliance (LSQA) jointly organized a panel discussion on conversion therapy, that people of LGBTQIA+ are continue to be subjected to in India.

We put together a holistic panel that includes voices of the LGBTQIA+ civil society, mental health community and legal community to debate and discuss the following:

(1) The what and why of the so-called conversion therapy and how it harms those subjected to it

(2) Why is it still being practiced if it violates the rights of those subjected to it, from a legal standpoint

(3) What should be the response/next steps of the mental health community, legal community and LGBQIA+ civil society to move towards a future where we can put a stop to conversion therapy

The recording of the entire panel discussion is available below

The Panelists:

Dr. L Ramakrishnan

Dr L Ramakrishnan is a public health professional, and vice president at SAATHII, an NGO working on inclusive health care, justice and social protection for communities marginalized on account of gender, sexuality and/or HIV status.

Pooja Nair

Pooja Nair has been part of the non-profit sector for over a decade. She has worked variously as a researcher, documentation consultant, trainer and now as an independent therapist. She is faculty at Mariwala Health Initiative’s Queer Affirmative Counselling Practice certificate course. She has an MPhil in social work and has worked in the areas of life skills, gender, sexuality, violence and child sexual abuse. She has also worked with adolescents on life skills development. She’s currently working on her PhD in addition to being a mental health practitioner and trainer. Pooja is a member of LABIA- a queer feminist LBT collective.

Arjun Kapoor

Arjun is a lawyer and psychologist with the Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy, Indian Law Society, Pune. After completing his B.A. LL.B. from NALSAR, Hyderabad, he worked as research assistant to the Supreme Court of India, and subsequently with the Centre for Social Justice, Ahmedabad for developing socio-legal interventions on access to justice. Currently, he works with a range of stakeholders for law & policy reform at the intersection of human rights, mental health, and suicide prevention in India. He is also a peer-counsellor for the LGBTQIA+ community.

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Date : May 23rd

Day: Saturday

Time: 5 to 6 pm

Want to bind your chest but no idea where to start?  Do you struggle with your binder?  Worried about risk associated with binding?

If you are looking for answers to any of above questions then this session is for you! This session will cover basics about chest binding along with tips and tricks. We will also discuss some of the risks associated with binding and how to minimize it. This session which will be facilitated by our very own in-house expert Gautam!

Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the undoubtable source. Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of “de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum” (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of ethics, very popular during the Renaissance. The first line of Lorem Ipsum, “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..”, comes from a line in section 1.10.32.

The standard chunk of Lorem Ipsum used since the 1500s is reproduced below for those interested. Sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 from “de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum” by Cicero are also reproduced in their exact original form, accompanied by English versions from the 1914 translation by H. Rackham.

Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the undoubtable source. Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of “de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum” (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of ethics, very popular during the Renaissance. The first line of Lorem Ipsum, “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..”, comes from a line in section 1.10.32.

The standard chunk of Lorem Ipsum used since the 1500s is reproduced below for those interested. Sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 from “de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum” by Cicero are also reproduced in their exact original form, accompanied by English versions from the 1914 translation by H. Rackham.

Read More