This Pride, Let’s Unlearn

To celebrate Pride month, we asked ourselves how much we knew and didn’t know about this space. Some of us knew a lot, some of us not so much, but all of us realised that, in the recent past, we all had been made to question what we thought we knew about topics affecting the LGBTQIA+ community — be it the impact of colonisation on gender identity, questioning binary gender constructs, topics surrounding same-sex marriage amongst so many other issues. We learnt that regardless of the topic or the team member, the first step each of us had taken to learn was to unlearn, and that’s how the name of this crowd-sourced project came into being, in the hope that other people also use these resources as a stepping stone to unlearn.

And Share

To make sure that these resources are shared with as many people as possible, we’re creating a blog for Unlearn. We’ll have movies that have affected us, podcasts we learn from, queer creators that we follow, NGOs that we have researched (a lot of whom are doing amazing work in rural areas and need your support), websites that contain everything and more about this space in India, and events featuring brilliant queer talent that we’ll be hosting. 

We do need your help though, if you know of resources in these categories that you feel would help others, please write to us and we’ll update our listings. Details on how you can reach us are at the bottom of this blog.

The Unlearn Blend

Lastly, since roasting coffee is how we show love, we made an Unlearn Blend. 

All proceeds from the sales will be dedicated equally towards 3 NGOs:

1. Nazariya Foundation: A Queer Feminist Resource Group (New Delhi) (towards their endeavour of Mental Health Counselling for the LGBTQIA+ community and their Trans Resource Project)

2. Sangama (Bengaluru)
(towards their Namma Clinics which provide services including counselling, government entitlements, legal support, and medical care to meet the diverse needs of the LGBT community)

3. The Humsafar Trust (Mumbai)
(to support the activities of Sanjeevani: which is a support group for people living with HIV)

You can reach out to us at unlearn@bluetokaicoffee.com.