21-Year-Old Queer Student Put In Conversion Therapy By Family Found Dead In Goa

A 21-years-old queer student from Kannur district in Kerala was found dead on May 12 in North Goa, under enigmatic circumstances. She was found hanging from a tree. The reasons for the same are not clear as of yet.

It is suspected that her suicide could have been triggered due to ongoing depression which started after she came out to her family members as bisexual and they did not take it well.

According to an Edexlive report, Anjana Harish had posted a live video on Facebook on March 13, where she mentioned physical and mental abuse by her family members. She also spoke about her being put into solitary confinement at a mental healthcare facility as her family members believed that they could cure her 'bisexuality'.

She is heard saying in the video that she was put on a heavy medication by the doctors and she could barely function. "I really do not know what to say and what to do. Medicine makes me dizzy, and I am not able to see or talk properly. I have become robotic," she said in that live video.

Anjana was openly bisexual and studied at Brennen College in Thalassery. She went to Goa on March 17th with her friends before the nationwide lockdown started in March and got stranded there, as the lockdown commenced. She wanted to take a small break and seek the peace of mind after her parents forced her into conversion therapy.

According to Edexlive, one of her friends said, "We were sitting at the premises of the hostel where we were staying. Sometime later, we realised that we could not find Anjana anywhere. We thought she may have around and would have gone for a walk. But we got suspicious after an hour or so. So, we went around to find Anjana hanging from a tree on a lungi. Even though we immediately tried rushing her to the hospital, we could not save her."

As the world celebrates International day against Homophobia today, numerous Queer activists across social media have called out Anjana's family and have accused them of being homophobic. Still, the police haven't given out any official statement regarding the case and Anjana's postmortem report is yet to come.