systems for parents in punecities like mumbai bengaluru and delhi are known to have a number of support groups for parents but the situation in pune seems to be different bindumadhav khire president of samapathik trust that organises pune pride says there is no formal structure as such when it comes to parent support in the city a few years ago quest prayatna held a lgbt parents support meeting it has been a while now since we too held something of that nature in most cases when children come out to their parents bindumadhav offers a number of solutions namely resources like his book an anthology of true stories of parents of gays and lesbians contacts of lgbtfriendly psychiatrists a chance to meet other parents of lgbt people or even setting up meetings with other lgbt individuals from my experience parents are most likely to listen only to a medical practitioner im not sure if the other forms of support would really work nonetheless it would be worthwhile trying to have more meetings for parents in fact we are planning a parents allies lgbt meet in march adds bindumadhavslow and steady we shall win says chitra palekarweve had quite a few new parents joining our group and people usually join only after theyve accepted their children the most common queries parents have is whether their extended families will accept their children and whether their childrens future will be safe and secure were still in a nascent stage but there will be many more parents out there who have accepted their children we hope they will join us after the queer azaadi mumbai pride parade chitra palekar on sweekar a support group formed by parents of lgbt children in mumbai she is a filmmaker writer and mother of a lesbian daughterwe need to start having conversations at home mona ambegaonkarart and cinema can play a positive role in bringing about change in society having said that i also think we need to start having conversations at home to initiate change lets start at the dining table i would have loved it if we didnt even have these conversations and parents just accepted their children when they come out and hugged them mona ambegaonkar the actress plays a parent of a lgbt person in late chetan datars play ek madhav baug and will be seen doing so in sridhar rangayans feature evening shadows surmaee shaampics shashank sane sourced