India's first LGBTQ theatre group Q Rang launched at Kerala Queer Pride March

The pride march in Kerala held on 17 March, 2019  launched India’s first ever LGBTQ theatre group, Q Rang, towards the close of the event at Manaveeyam Veedi in Thiruvananthapuram, a report in The News Minute said. Among the programmes announced at the end of the march also included the launch of Jwala, a self-help group created for the transgender community.

The march took off from the University College in the evening, the report added, and according to Prijith, the founder of Queerythm, an organisation working for the rights of sexual and gender minorities, the turnout this time around was unexpectedly large and he was quite pleasantly surprised to see people pouring in from other states such as Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and West Bengal.

The march had followed a green protocol in this edition, the report added and quoted Prijith as saying, “None of the materials we used are non-biodegradable. The rainbow flags are all made of cotton or cotton-mixed material.”

Several cultural events followed after it drew to a close including a performance by the newly launched theatre group Q Rang, directed by Sreejith Sundaram, the Quint also noted. The march marks the first queer pride in Kerala after the decrininalisation of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code in September 2018, a colonial law under which homosexuality was a criminal offence, the report added .