5 min readChennaiJan 11, 2023 07:21 AM IST
First published on: Jan 10, 2023 at 10:38 AM IST
Transgender rights activist Grace Banu has alleged members of Queer Publishing House, an initiative of the arts and cultural wing of Trans Rights Now Collective, have been facing casteist and transphobic treatment at Chennai Book Fair.
Banu said when she raised the issue with the organisers, they initially told her to shift their stall to one corner to “avoid any trouble”. However, after her social media post, government officials from the educational department promised that they would not allow the organisers to shift the stall.
The 46th Chennai Book Fair, organised by the Booksellers and Publishers Association of South India (BAPASI), was inaugurated by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on January 6 and is set to take place till January 22 at the YMCA College campus in Nandanam.
The organisers said the fair has over 1,000 stalls and for the first time, they have allocated a separate stall for the LGBTQIA+ community.
“We fought for this place and now organisers are making our journey miserable. Every day, there are transphobia and casteism at the book fair. Every day, there is some disturbance and threats to end our presence. They now want to shift our stall to an unknown corner,” Banu’s social media post read which included the hashtags #endtransphobic, #queerphobia.
In the video Banu shared on Sunday, a man is seen lifting the Queer Publishing House’s standee, which has the images of various LGBTQIA+ writers, and pushing it inside their stall and further asking the members to complain about it to whomsoever.
Banu told indianexpress.com they have been subjected to harassment every day at the fair. “Our stall (No 28) features the works of over 50 LGBTQIA+ writers in English, Tamil and Malayalam. Since the beginning of the fair, our stall has been getting a lot of attraction. Many people wish to interact with us, take selfies but all these things are not welcomed by those who run a stall closer to us. As you can see in that video I shared, the man who runs a stall next to us told us to move our standee inside our stall as he claimed it blocks his stall. It was not kept closer to his stall but still, he stepped on it and moved the standee. Will he do the same if the standee has the images of great leaders? did he dare to do it because it has only the images of our community members?” Banu asked.
Banu said the organisers had asked them to “dress appropriately” and “not hug their friends”.
“We faced so many hurdles to get the stall. It was not like I got it for free, just like other members, I too paid a fee to get a stall here. We raised the issue with the organisers but they simply told us to shift our stall to one corner to ‘avoid any trouble’. Why should we go away from the place we were provided? The organisers did not say anything against the person who lifted our standee. It is patriarchy and nothing else. Further, we were told by one of the organisers to dress appropriately and not hug our friends. Who are they to decide what we should wear?” Banu asked.
The trans activist said after her post on social media, the government officials from the educational department spoke to her and offered her support.
When indianexpress.com contacted one of the organisers, the person said there were no issues in the fair and noted the standee was kept closer to the neighbouring shop and hence it was moved.
“We must first understand the issue completely. The standee was closer to the neighbouring shop and hence the stall manager kept it inside. We came to know about the incident and we sorted the issue. One thing is that our organisation provided space for the trans community to showcase their talent and work. However, we were getting complaints from other fellow stall members that a large number of trans community members are coming every day and occupying the space blocking the way for other stalls and causing a disturbance. We informed Queer Publishing House to avoid this as the space is common for everyone, we did not say anything else and we did not discriminate against them in any way,” an official noted.
After her social media post, government officials from the educational department promised that they would not allow the organisers to shift the stall. (Twitter @thirunangai) 
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