Queer content creators on Instagram are steering the conversation around LGBTQiA+ rights to create an informed community of allies. Here is a rainbow of social media influencers to follow
Pic courtesy/Anjana Kashyap
The ongoing litigation in the Supreme Court around legalising same-sex marriage is bringing social media users out of the woodwork to voice their opinions, creating a lot of white noise and threatening to hijack the narrative and drown out important discourse. mid-day brings you a curated list of queer voices who are bridging the gap between myth and disinformation, and using their platforms as spaces for informed awareness.
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Filmy AF
This queer couple describes themselves as a fully filmy lesbian couple and their content is a colourful exploration of how they are breaking stereotypes, one romantic couple post at a time. “The reason why we started a couple page is because we wanted to create the kind of queer content that the 16-year-old Sayantika and Nick didn’t have,” Sayantika Majumder, one-half of the couple, explains, referring to the overly sexualised image of lesbian couples in popular media. “We wanted to show that it’s possible to have that regular, normal, day-to-day life as a lesbian couple.” Nick Prakash, Majumder’s partner, adds, “We want to normalise the narrative and give young queer folks the hope that they can also have a filmy love story with two heroines.”
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Instagram: @nick_and_sayantika
Creating a niche space
Prarthana Prasad recently won Cosmopolitan’s LGBTQiA+ Voice of the Year. She says the idea behind her account, which she started during the lockdown, was to create content she would personally like to see. Through her page, she explores the funny and unfunny aspects of being lesbian, including tongue-in-cheek clapbacks on relatives and family for their veiled barbs and straight-faced satire designed as helpful tutorials for non-ally heterosexuals. “My idea was to target the LGBTQ community and give them content they’d like
to see.”
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Instagram: @shorthairedbrownqueer
Spreading love through music
Musician and music educator, Jay Anand founded The Queer Plexus. It is an online community that talks about issues faced by the queer at workplaces. “The idea is to help prevent people from facing disadvantages due to their gender and/or sexual identity,” he says.
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Instagram: @jayinprocess
Using social media as a canvas
YouTuber and independent filmmaker Nishtha Berry started expressing herself online despite the trolling. Berry’s page focuses on changing attitudes towards gay people and calling out haters and homophobic social media users, while unapologetically expressing herself.
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Instagram: @berrylicious_4
Neuroqueer and proud of it
As a sexuality educator with over six years of experience, Apurupa Vatsalya is vocal about the need for comprehensive sexuality education to be more widespread. “It covers the whole gamut of the human experience of sexuality, which encompasses relationships and intergenerational negotiations, while also touching upon elements of the social experience, dating, pleasure, and intersections of religions and culture with one’s own sexuality,” says Vatsalya, who is autistic and neuroqueer. Her platform spreads awareness about what it means to be queer and neurodivergent. “I wanted to speak to people with similar experiences.”
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Instagram: @inapurupriate
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