Belonging to the LGBTQ+ community is tougher in the northeast, with its context of militarisation and political violence, says Sadam Hanjabam, the founder-CEO of Ya_All, a Manipur-based organisation working to empower the queer identity through sports.
Sadam Hanjabam: If you look at the LGBTQ+ movement in India, it’s mostly centered in urban areas. There’s very little representation from other regions, including the entire northeast and particularly Manipur.
The northeast is different from the rest of India in socio-cultural and political terms. We face unique issues like human rights, militarisation and self-determination movements. So issues of gender, identity and LGBTQ+ rights often took a backseat. They were never seen as urgent.
Queer voices from the northeast are almost absent in the mainstream. That’s why I started Ya_All, a youth-led LGBTQ+ organisation. It began as a collective in 2017 and became officially registered in 2019.
Representation and inclusion matter. Who is leading the movement and who are they speaking for? This sometimes creates the stereotype that queer people only come from urban, elite backgrounds.
The LGBTQ+ community faces a lot of violence, stigma, bullying and discrimination, which isn’t visible to the outside world. Being from the northeast, with its context of militarisation and political violence, makes it even worse. People from this region also face stereotyping and exclusion because of how we look. Even if we try to fit in, we can’t.
Another reason for my involvement was my personal struggle to recover and find a safe space where I could be myself without judgement or discrimination.
Most movements and collectives in the northeast (and even the rest of the country) were focused on addressing the HIV epidemic. They didn’t focus on issues of identity or rights. That’s why we started to work on this dimension.
SH: We started with a WhatsApp group in 2017. It was very low profile, and most of the connections were made through word of mouth. It wasn’t open to everyone.
In 2018, we started an event called ‘Square Games,’ using sports to connect queer people in Manipur. In many cities, we see pride walks, night parties and other celebratory gatherings. But in a conflict zone like Manipur, we couldn’t hold these kinds of events.
When we started in 2017, homosexuality was still criminalised in India. We were in a situation where we couldn’t express our sexuality openly. There was a high chance of police harassment or even arrest.
That’s why we started using sports as a medium to claim our safe space, express our identities and showcase our talents. We have continued organising this event, ‘Sports for Pride,’ every year.
SH: It has been difficult for us. We are already a marginalised community. The ongoing conflict in Manipur is seen from many angles – religion, perpetrators and victims. As a queer community, we have been ignored and continue to face discrimination from all sides. Outreach has become difficult.
I talked about creating safe spaces, but in the last 18 months or so, we have struggled with this goal. We have not been able to provide safe spaces to everyone because we ourselves have been affected badly.
We are a young organisation. Soon after Ya_All was registered in 2019, we were hit by the COVID pandemic. Finally, after COVID was over and we started stabilising in 2022, the conflict in Manipur escalated in early 2023 and is still ongoing.
We have been struggling for funding and to create safe spaces. This struggle is not just ours; many other organisations and individuals are suffering too.
As queer people, we have been navigating both internal and external conflicts for many years. Internally, we are always grappling with questions like ‘Who am I?’ and dealing with our own identity struggles. Many still struggle to come out because of this.
On top of that, there’s the external conflict – the mocking, discrimination and othering from society. We learn to live with these conflicts throughout our lives.
Even when we accept ourselves as queer and take steps to resolve our internal conflicts, it doesn’t become easy. You could say that we, as queer people, become experts at navigating various forms of difficulties and conflicts throughout our lives.
SH: In a way, this has made us very good at crisis management. Even during the ongoing conflict, we have been reaching out to affected people and relief camps Manipur has also been hit by a disastrous flood in the last month or so. Many houses and crops have been destroyed.
In a short span of time, we have gone through both a war-like situation and a natural calamity. But we have remained active, reaching out to affected people and communities and doing fundraising to provide aid. We did this work during COVID-19 too.
We reached out to everyone affected, regardless of their gender, identity or status. We helped people get mental health support, food and other essential commodities.
Our contributions and support have led to people trusting us. When working with the community, especially on issues like mental health, trust-building is crucial. This has led to greater acceptance of us in society, at least in the areas where we work.
The lead image shows participants after a football match organised by Ya_All. (Photo courtesy Ya_All)
