hyderabad coming out of the closet was a disquieting process but they mustered the courage to smash gender and sexuality stereotypes to carve out a niche in art and entrepreneurship thanks to a handful of organizations and unfolding events the queer community of hyderabad were able to turn the tide with the satrangi mela hosted by queer nilayam providing a robust platform the mela took off with pomp and glory at wework krishe emerald in kondapur on saturdayspunk zeal and laughter marked the day with crowds coming together to emphasize the need for normalcy and acceptance of the queer community in a heteronormative society this is hyderabads first satrangi mela the idea is to provide safe space to the queer community and empower their entrepreneurs artists and performers profits from mela stalls will be ploughed in to support the queer community said jayant the founder of queer nilayamthe daylong event that featured art open mic poetry food and performances by queer artists witnessed participation of many hyderabadbased brands like howtocockroachacat instamanna desi kalakaar debbiedesignedit a rainbow over your handestablished in march 2021 queer nilayam has been a pillar of support for queer people during pandemic times cofounder tushar and i want to give safe space to queers to gather and vent their feelings without being judged and thats how we start queer nilayam this is our goal jayant also known as jojo said also queer nilayam will be achieving its second milestone which is to launch the second edition of its magazine queernama on october 30touted as telanganas first lgbtq ezine queernama was launched in july 2021 the magazine featured art poems drawings and writeups by queer people the second edition will feature stories of 15 queer entrepreneurs from hyderabad said jojo the 35page book is priced at rs100now theres some cheer for those who missed out on the hyderabad pride march the covid19 pandemic and police disapproval forced a noshow for two years this year we are going to host the hyderabad pride march on november 13 said jojoif the colourful and lively stalls were not enough to trigger glee queer performers like noted drag artist patruni sastry apoorva gupta smitin nique singh khemaya telu sravan kumar among others made the dayapoorva gupta aka rowdy lp hyderabads drag king standup comic and activist is the founder of queer women collective stereotypes and gatekeeping happen within the lgbtq community itself we started queer women community to give a safe space for queer women and to tackle these taboos within the community later we felt this should be sprinkled among allies too because of that we have arranged campaigns and talks at mncs on how the work culture can be inclusive for women and how they can proudly choose to come out to their colleagues she said