Group in Pune, India to Do First-Ever Survey of Gay/Lesbian Population

NGO Women's Network kick started Pune's first-ever survey of its gay and lesbian population last week. The findings of the project, which is headed by Mangala Samant, a marriage counsellor and researcher, will be published in the form of a booklet in Marathi titled 'Apraadhi Kaun' in January 2010. Samant, who has earlier researched live-in relationships, said the ongoing debate on Article 377 motivated her to undertake the initiative. The project will incorporate interviews of gay and lesbian couples in Pune by Dr Geetali V R, vice-president of Women's Network and editor of feminist Marathi magazine Miloon Sayajani. "It is wrong to term gay and lesbian sex as unnatural. If a sizable community there are an estimated 100 gay and 50 openly lesbian couples in Pune prefers this kind of sex, how can we label it morbid?" asked Samant, who will also go to the US to tap archives on the subject there. Full Story from Mid-Day.com

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