A group of school students have made films on the LGBTQIA community highlighting how they are often ridiculed and bullied because of their gender identity.
The school encouraged the students to pick a topic “considered a taboo subject even a few years ago” so that children are more accepting of people around them, the head of the institution said.
The two films — Why me? and Forbidden Love — by students of Julien Day School Kalyani were meant for a students’ film festival held in the city recently.
Forbidden Love shows a lesbian forced into marriage with a man by her parents because she was in a relationship with another woman.
Why me? is about how a transgender person trapped in the biological body of a woman is ridiculed and bullied by other students in a school.
It is the fear of being ridiculed or facing ostracisation that stops many young people from coming out with their real gender identity, said teachers across many schools.
“Whenever a student with a different gender identity comes out, they suffer humiliation and bullying by their peers. We have to make children of the present generation accept people as they are,” said Terence John, principal of the school.
John said that people from the LGBTQIA community “suffer internally” because they are not accepted by their own peers or families.
“Parents get depressed when they find out about their children’s gender identity. By educating the children, we are also sensitising and creating awareness among parents to accept their children as they are,” said John.
Parents face a tough time because even if they accept their children, people around them often do not. The students of the film club came up with many ideas.
When they thought of bullying, they chose bullying of students from the LGBTQIA community.
“Till a few years back, we would shun these topics in school. Now, there is a change... but the acceptance is only half-hearted,” said Class XII student Yagnaseni Neogi, a member of the film club.
“We are all right with it if someone outside our family is from the community but when it is people we are close to or who matter to us that acceptance is not there,” she said.
The chairperson of the state commission for protection of child rights said that schools encouraging children to make films on people from the LGBTQIA community was a “healthy sign”.
“It is important to have an open mind and to question the status quo. That is the main purpose of education,” said Ananya Chatterjee Chakraborti.