OpIndia’s back at with self-defeatist arguments that promote the violence of imposing the cisgender-heteronormative binary through the means of shame with a piece titled “I am an 18-year-old progressive woman who supports LGBTQ rights, but I no longer support Pride Month: Here is why”.

The piece conflates a child’s love for drag to a child’s love for ‘eating sand’ to baselessly claim that drag queens, queer and trans folks are “indoctrinating” and “grooming” youth.

This really highlights the transmisogynistic struggle of using gender essentialism to justify an avoidance of internalized patriarchal femininity.

Bring queer and trans is as far away from “indoctrinating” anyone as can be: we’re just being who we are, and opening up the possibilities for youth to explore who they are, outside of the cis-het indoctrination that’s so mainstreamed that most people are scared to acknowledge that they’re restricted by it.

The manipulation of language in OpIndia’s article continues to put LGBTQI+ youth at risk of suicide.

More than half of trans youth are at risk of suicide. What about those who die without the language to find themselves? How does a statistic calculate the loneliness of not knowing the love in transness.

Last year, NCERT released a downloadable guide to create gender and trans-affirming places by educating school teachers and administrators. But the guide was taken down soon after immense backlash, and anti-trans complaints from the National Commission for ‘Protection’ of Child Rights.

The contributions who put in their time, labour, and effort in making schools and worlds safer and survivable for children, were violently harassed online by right-wing Hindutva trolls on Twitter, unleashed by OpIndia.

A teacher and parent’s support can be lifesaving – LGBTQ youth with queer and trans-affirmative families, are about 50 percent less likely to be at risk of suicide than those with families who are unsupportive. What is the cost of choosing love over harassment?

If we don’t create spaces that affirm youth’s right to be themselves, it will continue to put them at risk of suicide. Trans-affirming spaces are lifesaving — if not for your child, maybe for their friend.