I see you all waiting with bated breath!! Never fear, the prompts are finally here!!!!

It is our pleasure to bring to you the 30 day prompts for the Desi LGBT Fest 2023!!!

Feel free to draw, write, sing, dance, anything you want, anyhow the inspiration strikes you with the prompts! It can be a simple sketch, elaborate painting, a nonfiction piece, a sweet story, a poem, a cherished memory. Create and share and become a part of this small place online we're carving for ourselves...

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

The over all theme of this year's Fest is:

"Queer As In Defying Conventions: What Does It Mean To Be Convention Defying In South Asian Contexts"

This means describing what queer defiance means to you and how you navigate your world within it. However, the prompt theme is merely a suggestion and not a requirement, so feel free to use the prompts as you wish! And if you do not want to use specific prompts, you can share something based on the overall theme with us.

Throughout the event, we will be signal boosting charaties, organizations, marches, as well as reblogging some of our favorite highlights from last year!

Head over to this post for rules and guidelines for posting the prompts. The image description is under the cut.

A Single Spark

TW: Homophobia

Today I'm here with a real life incident, the first one that I was reminded of as soon as I heard this theme.

It was back in 10th grade, all of us were back to offline classes after the dreadful online ones. 2 years ago, we'd been juniors who looked up to our seniors in 10th grade but now we were those seniors who were looked up to. I didn't realise this much until I finished grade-10.

My school regularly conducted sessions related to hygiene, communication etc and this time the topic was about sexual health. A well known gynaecologist was invited to take up the session for the 9th and 10th graders together. We went to the school hall, I was sitting next to my then best friend.

The gynaecologist first spoke about the importance of sexual wellbeing and how to protect ourselves from STDs etc. Soon after the topic shifted to impulsive and reckless sexual behaviours in teenagers. And that was when she began talking about how teenagers are simply thinking that they are homosexual because they have been staying with people of their same gender for a long time. How it is only because of people they are surrounded by that they think they are not straight. Not being straight is simply now a trend and a trap that young children are falling into without knowing anything. She continued to say that homosexuality doesn’t exist, it is just a misbelief and a phase. She proceeds to urge us not to fall for such things and stay away from people who suggest all this.

And by this time, I was enraged. My best friend was already out to me but I was still closeted, she knew I was an ally nevertheless. There were already rumours going around that both of us weren’t straight and that we were dating each other, so I decided not to risk anything. I controlled myself until the QnA session when I suggested to her that we go and actually question her about it. My best friend was scared, she was anxious about speaking out to everyone but I asked her to trust me with it and I assured that I’ll be the one questioning the gynaecologist and she can just sit beside me. I went forward, took a deep breath and held the mic that was given and asked her why she would simply call it a phase when people from the community are actually existing. And I stated a bunch of article numbers that came up to my mouth because I forgot what the actual one was and said some random lines about how homosexuality was legalised in India. (I mean who would know I was bluffing-) I never in my wildest dreams expected what followed. The entire hall began clapping. They haven’t done that for anyone else, not even for the so-called doctor herself. It was so loud that she had to shout and quieten everyone. It was such a proud moment for both me and my best friend but our happiness was short-lived because the response we got from the gynaecologist obviously wasn’t anything positive. It was after this that I realised how many allies are actually present among us and how their voices just aren’t loud enough to be heard.

All work will be posted with due credit and the creators retain all rights for it.

This event is limited to Tumblr. However, if you want to post your work elsewhere as well, you definitely can, as long as you credit the Desi LGBT Fest for which it was made. If you want your work reblogged in our fest, then provide the link and tag us in a Tumblr post.

Late submissions are accepted. Please allow mods at least 24 hours to do their due diligence. 

Any work cannot involve purposeful hate, direct attacks or otherwise bashing of any other queer identity. Any depiction of homophobia/transphobia/etc. needs to be tagged as such. If deemed too inauthentic by any of the Mods of this blog, then we reserve the right to not reblog or promote such content. 

Any work cannot involve purposeful hate, direct attack, or otherwise bashing of any religion, ethnicity, or real-life persons. Any such content needs to be tagged as such. If deemed too inauthentic by any of the Mods of this blog, then we reserve the right to not reblog or promote such content. 

Please provide ample content warnings if your work features any difficult subject matters. 

If you want to submit photographs, essays, nonfiction, or stories of any kind that involves real events, people, or places, three things are mandatory:

Cite the sources

Consent of people featured as much as possible

Respect, above all.

This event is to encourage new creations as much as possible, but if you have any existing art, stories, or content that you want to get featured on the blog, you can submit it. Just be sure to tag us properly so we can reblog. 

Regarding content in non-English languages:

It will be featured as it is. Others are welcome to translate it for accessibility with the permission of the creators. But the main purpose of the fest is to create Queer Content for the Desis and it’s important that the content in your own language also gets a platform.

All NSFW content should/will be properly tagged. This Fest is for all, minors included!!! There’s nothing inherently 18+ about queer identities and minors should feel safe participating in this event as well.

@desi-lgbt-fest: Day-2 - Legacy

Legacy/n/: the long-lasting impact of particular events, actions, etc. that took place in the past, or of a person’s life.

Content warning: I’m going to talk about Hindu Mythology looked at from a queer perspective, so if you’re not comfortable with that feel free to scroll ahead!

The first thought that came to my mind when I heard legacy was mythology. The rich legacy that our ancient tales have left behind for us is often forgotten when looked at from a queer context. Hindu mythology is very patriarchal in nature but it does include a lot lesser known queer subtext. In the great epics we find ideas of men turning into women and women turning into men for various purposes to be fulfilled. If you really think about it, they aren’t just eunuchs or confirmed to a single gender/sexuality like what they are portrayed to as, they were transgender people and even transsexual, men loving men, women loving women, non-binary individuals.

Those who are familiar with the Hindu Mythology already know the tales of Vishnu as Mohini who has sons with Shiva as the father, Shikhandini who becomes Shikhandi, Ila whose gender is changed to be Sudyumna but can switch genders monthly, Bhagiratha who was born from two mothers. Tell me you don’t see a queer connotation in all these tales, I’ll wait. Though times were very different back then, people who didn’t fall under the rigid gender and sexual orientations also existed. Ideas in mythology are quite distinct from the views that we all share today, queer people weren’t looked at in the same way as us now. But they were there. (And still some people have the audacity to say that being queer is an elitist and modern concept.) You are not alone in your experiences. Queer people have existed even in the ancient times. Queer was always here.