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DOI 10.60531/INSIGHTOUT.2024.2.9| GUHA: QUEERING CALCUTTA_ INSIGHTOUT 2(2024) 65 bined with efforts for legislative and administrative protections and rights-based demands. The next sec­tion will show how that is being galvanised in Kolkata. Bengal Trans*& Queer Charter of Demands On 2 April 2021,“as many as 21 LGBTQA+ commu­nity groups, several LGBTQA+ individuals, and their allies from across the state put in a collective effort to bring out the Bengal Trans*& Queer Charter of Demands”. 14 The charter focuses on the rights, lives, livelihood, and aspirations of LGBTQ+ communities in West Bengal. It tries to re-vison the healthcare and education systems. It advocates LGBTQ+-inclu­sive education curricula and teacher training, along with a strictly enforced law against the bullying of LGBTQ+ persons in educational institutions. The Bengal Trans*& Queer Charter of Demands is one of the outcomes of the collaborative effort of twenty-one LGBTQ+ organisations and several individuals to develop a comprehensive advocacy document. It aims to mobilise and collectivise gen­der and sexual minority communities in West Bengal and helps them to articulate their demands from a rights-based framework and perspective. Some col­laborative partner organisations in this initiative are Dumdum Swikriti Society, Madhya Bangla Sangram, Malda Parichay Society, Prantik Bongaon, Varta Trust, Birbhum Somporko, Jalpaiguri Uttrayan Socie­ty, Kolkata Anandam for Equality and Justice, Maitri Sangjog Society of Cooch Behar, et cetera. Iconic success stories from Bengal A transgender person from West Bengal made his­tory on 9 June 2015, when Manabi Bandopadhyay was made the college principal at Krishnagar Wo­men’s College in Nadia district of Bengal. She is the first transgender person to achieve this feat of be­coming a college principal. Manabi was euphoric when she said:“For me, it’s a long battle against ig­norance. There was a time when I and even my father were threatened with(dire) consequences as I am a transgender. I spent my childhood in Nadia and it’s a comeback to my home with pride and dignity after a long battle”. 15 Recounting her own story, Manabi narrates that since her infancy Manabi was inclined to feminine features and evinced marks of being a girl. This was however not taken very well by her father as Manabi was the only son in the family and was perceived as a potential bread earner. Tyrannised by her father, Ma­nabi vowed to consult a psychiatrist to get relief from her trauma and her dilemma of being torn between her twin identities. Sadly, though even psychiatrist doctors in India too are unaware about homosexual realities and they did not encourage her to manifest her own female identity, rather, they advised her to supress her actual female identity. So, being born as Somnath Banerjee, a male, Manabi had to encounter consistent rebuke and persecution from the larger society and also from her father whenever she tried to reveal her own identity. Award-winning transgender film-maker Rituparno Ghosh was another example of radical courage in Bengal and India as a whole. He openly admitted his homosexuality and was a unique figu­re in the Indian film industry. Although he would not identify with Bollywood and made his films mostly in Bengali, he was recognised as a renowned pan-Indi­14 Chand,“‘Bengal Trans*& Queer Charter of Demands’ released”, Varta, 31 March 2021, https://vartagensex.org/2021/03/31/ bengal-trans-queer-charter-of-demands-released/#:~:text=The%20charter%20focuses%20on%20the,largely%20to%20their%20 social%20marginalization(accessed 17 Jul. 2024). 15 “Meet Manabi Bandhopadhyay, India‘s first transgender college principal from West Bengal”, Your Story, 21 March, 2018. https:// yourstory.com/2018/03/first-transgender-college-principal-west-bengal(accessed 17 Jul. 2024).