2004 Landmarks

1. FIRST PUBLICATION OF Swakanthey (in our own voice), THE BI-LINGUAL, BI-ANNUAL MAGAZINE 

Sappho for Equality published its first issue of the bilingual-biannual newsletter Swakanthey (In her own voice) in January 2004. At the 29th Kolkata International Book Fair (2004), this first issue of Swakanthey was distributed and it completely sold out. It was envisioned as a newsletter that spoke more of the views and attitudes of the society at large about issues of sexualities, shifting its focus from any particular organisation to sustaining a creative resistive voice in the form of art, poetry, prose pieces and articles. 

Since then, Sappho for Equality has been publishing Swakanthey twice every year, one as a book fair issue in January and the other as a birthday issue in June. 

2. Beyond Whispers - FIRST PUBLIC PROGRAM OF SAPPHO FOR EQUALITY

Beyond Whispers was an awareness program aimed at problematizing and raising questions on marginalized gender identities and sexual orientations. The event itself involved the screening of a Bengali short film, “Ushna Tar Janya”, which was followed by a panel discussion on issues related to marginalisation of intersecting identities and social non-acceptance. The panelists included Pramada Menon (then Director, Program, CREA, New Delhi), Kaushik Ganguly, the director of the telefilm and the two lead performers - Rupa Ganguly, an eminent film actress and Chapal Bhaduri, a well-known stage performer in women roles. Dr. Amit Ranjan Basu, an independent researcher on sexuality and mental health, moderated the discussion. 

Media personalities, NGO personalities and interested general audience had made this venture a big success. At the question answer session a deluge of interesting questions poured in from the audience. The questions came from a varied cross-section of the society.