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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Feb. 11, 1999
issue of Workers World newspaper
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After a series of attacks against the film "Fire," lesbians in India have organized to fight back, according to independent journalist Rex Wockner. The right-wing religious Shiv Sena party had organized mob attacks on theaters that showed the film. "Fire" is an acclaimed ovie about two Indian women who fall in love.
"The attacks on the film, the responses to the film and the protests have pushed women's groups, human-rights groups and secular organizations to address the lesbophobia which prevails within large sections of Indian society," the newly formed Campaign for Lesbian Rights noted in announcing its founding.
"Culture, tradition, values and morals have consistently been used as tools of oppression and discrimination."
Organizers said that the group would disseminate information as well as organize against the anti-lesbian attacks.
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