"All you gay people are paedophiles.”
“It’s a good thing your father died, or he would have had to see this day.”
“You need to meet a real man. You will stop liking women once you meet me.”
All, things that have been told – like the sum total of the choicest abuses – and hurled at fellow citizens of the country from behind – you guessed it, the safety of someone’s computer screen. All, things that have been told to hurt, wound and traumatise an entire community.
Eleven people who received such vitriol on social media because of their sexual orientation and how they choose to identify, read out these messages on a mobile phone, in this video:
The video, launched by Team Delta, highlights the problem of cyber-bullying that people from the LGBTQIA community face, day in and day out, in India that has one of the world’s largest LGBT+ population.
The video was also launched to leave members of the community and its allies with one message – that of being #StrongestTogether in the face of harassment, abuse and vitriol. As Ishaan Sethi, Co-Founder and CEO of The Delta App puts it:
This video proclaims that our strength lies in coming together as a community. At a time when it is easier to say things sitting behind a screen, we urge our community and allies to step out and speak. That even if trolls do exist, even if people make derogatory statements from behind a screen, there exists wonderful, passionate, kind and loving people from the LGBTQ+ community & our allies, to make this world a better, more accepting, loving and integrated place.Ishaan Sethi, Co-Founder & CEO, The Delta App
The app started off as a conversation between Sethi and Sachin Bhatia, founder of MakeMyTrip and TrulyMadly – the latter had already developed a strong reputation for being a safe online space for women. Seeking to make a similar safe space for the LGBT community, Sethi – who had just returned from the US – decided to create an app that was tailored specifically to the Indian LGBT context.
Thus was born India’s first homegrown LGBT community app. Delta aims to provide a free and safe space for “like-minded people” to connect and promises these three key aspects:
The app is now live and can be downloaded on both the App Store and Google Play.
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