Initiatives
Indian Coming Out Day
Mist organizes an yearly gathering as Indian Coming Out Day, to celebrate the first victory of the struggle against Section 377. On this day, Mist celebrates it in various forms and releases colourful balloons, which symbolises our fight for Freedom to Love & Equality. Mist collaborate with various local organizations / collectives / NGOs / CBOs to organize to bring this event across multiple cities.
If you wish to know more about the event and collaborate with us to bring this event to your city, please get in touch with us using the contact form in the Get in Touch page.
Queer & Allies Art Festival
Founded in 2015 by Mist – an online collective of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender activists – the Queer and Allies Art Festival (QAAF) brings together artists, craftspeople, and performers from all over India in a single event that demonstrates the talent and artistry of India’s LGBTQ community and its allies. The festival is a free one-full-day slate of performances, films, and art installations that happens in various cities in India.
Queer Talks And Meetings
We know it takes a great deal to come to terms with oneself, to know that we need to understand and accept ourselves first to be able to express pride and belief in a crowd of staring and questioning eyes. Spoon-fed care doesn’t teach this, but a guiding light could make a difference in self-learning and understanding. So this is a place where we come together and hear one another. QTAM happens every alternate weekends (either on Saturday or Sunday) at Mist Centre / Online where we discuss about a specific topic or just have fun if any festival is around the time. Details of the QTAM will be posted in Mist Facebook Page and QTAM group.
Queer Talks And Meetings - Hyderabad
Queer Talks and Meetings is a place where we come together and hear one another in order to sustain the adventures that life gifts us! We believe in the philosophy that we can achieve peace even in the midst of life’s mess through each other’s words and understanding! Sometimes compassionate words can start a new beginning for a drowned life. We plan to meet and form a social support group for all of us dealing with numerous issues. We intend to create a space that will help us understand ourselves better and believe in the strength and courage each one of us is gifted with.
QTAM Hyderabad is organized by Vijay, Harsha and Karthik at the moment. Please reach out to them in case if you want to attend the support group meetings.
Stories & Poems
Stories – a space where people can share stories, in hope to uplift the LGBTQ community. We hope that the stories we collect will help the LGBTQ individuals come to terms with their identity and understand that they are not alone. Let it be coming out or your love story or your life struggles as a LGBT individual or anything, write to us and we will get your story published in our site.
Poems – a space where people can share their writings, in hope to express the writing skills of the LGBTQ community. We hope that the poems we post here will help the LGBTQ individuals express their writing skills to the world out there. Let it be coming out or your expression of love or your life struggles as a LGBT individual or anything, write to us and we will get your poem published in our site.
Out & Loud - Pune International Queer Film Festival
The Out & Loud Pune International Queer Film Festival, powered by MIST, is an annual event showcasing handpicked queer films from all over the world. It is a festival for the people and by the people, where award selection for films is not made by a special jury but through voting by members of the community.
What’s more!? The festival promises an amazing line-up of performances by members of the community and thought-provoking panel discussions. Besides coming together for the love of art and cinema, the festival is also an open platform for the LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, Intersex, Asexual/Allies, plus all other sexualities and genders not included in these few letters) to voice their concerns in a safe, friendly environment. The first Out & Loud – PIQFF was held in Pune in April, 2017, to an overwhelming response.
Making LGBTQ India Digital
Mist has acquired the domain name lgbtq.co.in to help LGBTQ groups in India establish an online presence with a vision to create online presence under lgbtq.co.in for smaller CBO’s & NGO’s to show their work globally. Mist provides hosting space as well as technical support to interested groups, either free of cost or for a small fee depending on the organization level.
QueerBazaar
QueerBazaar was initiated by Mist with an aim to make queer pride merchandise easily available in India at an affordable price. Started in 2017 with few hand made accessories, QueerBazaar now has more than 100 products (both hand made and manufactured) in various categories. Our specialities are printed rainbow flag (multiple sizes), mobile cases, mobile pop sockets, t-shirts, funky lapel pins, coffee mugs, pin badges. Go to QueerBazaar to place an order now.
QueerBazaar also aims to make crowd-funding and event ticket sales at nominal charge, so that the event team does not pay an huge amount as processing fees and can have a little more than what they usually get. We also undertake corporate gifting orders and discounts are available for bulk orders.