In a welcome move, the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Monday, October 5, formed a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) cell that will work specifically for the community.
With this move, NCP claimed to be the first political party across the country to have set up a dedicated cell for the LGBT community.
एल.जी.बी.टी समूहाला सामाजिक प्रवाहात सामावून घेण्यासाठी, त्यांच्या प्रश्नांना व्यासपीठ मिळवून देण्यासाठी @NCPspeaks तर्फे एल.जी.बी.टी सेलची स्थापना करण्यात आली असून आज प्रदेशाध्यक्ष ना. @Jayant_R_Patil व खा. @supriya_sule यांच्या उपस्थितीत सेलच्या कार्यकारिणीची घोषणा करण्यात आली. pic.twitter.com/8DtUl7ksFJ
— NCP (@NCPspeaks) October 5, 2020
Party state president Jayant Patil and MP Supriya Sule formally launched the cell in Mumbai. It will comprise of a 15-member team which will be headed by Priya Patil, a transgender activist. In 2019, the political party had appointed Priya as a member of its state working committee and had become the first party in Maharashtra to nominate an LGBT activist on a prominent political position.
‘We felt LGBT community needs equal rights, so we made a separate cell for them’, said Supriya Sule, reported Mint.
‘NCP was the first party to experiment by setting up Yuvati Congress (young women) cell and now it has established an LGBT cell in an attempt to bring justice to the deprived section,’ Jayant Patil said at the event. He further added that the party declared forming a dedicated cell for the LGBT community in its election manifesto.
‘Glad to announce that NCP has launched an LGBTQIA+ cell in order to voice the issues of the queer and bring them to the mainstream. Unfortunately, the LGBTQIA community is subjected to bullying and violence due to prejudice,’ said Sule in a series of tweets.
Glad to announce that @NCPspeaks has launched an LGBTQIA+ Cell in order to voice the issues of the queer and bring them in the mainstream. Unfortunately, the LGBTQIA community is subjected to bullying and violence due to prejudice.
— Supriya Sule (@supriya_sule) October 5, 2020
We must eliminate the prejudice that we have towards the Queer Community and be more inclusive towards alternative Gender Identities and Gender Expression. Work needs to be done for making a more inclusive society free from prejudice, homophobia and transphobia.
— Supriya Sule (@supriya_sule) October 5, 2020
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