Bisexual Girl Commits Suicide Due to Conversion Therapy
Anjana Hareesh was from Kasaragod Kerala and was found dead in Goa on May 12. She was 21 years old.
Anjana Hareesh was from Kasaragod Kerala and was found dead in Goa on May 12. She was 21 years old. She had been in Goa since mid-March with her friends. The police have filed a case of unnatural death and it is believed Anjana may have committed suicide. But her live videos and statements of her friends have shown some different and disturbing incidents of why she was in Goa. Anjana had informed her family sometime back that she was a bisexual person. The family had not accepted it. ‘Conversion Therapy’ is a therapy where LGBTQ people forced to convert and be straight. This is illegal and fake. According to the therapy, such persons are sick and need to be cured.
In a Facebook video in March, Anjana said that she was forcibly taken by her family to two ‘de-addiction centres’, without her consent. When she tried to explain she was slapped and was put on heavy medication by these centres. Her friends had tried to contact her but they couldn’t. Anjana contacted them when she returned. Anjana’s friend, Gargi said, “She was on the wrestling team. You will not believe the physical changes that the medicines had done.” After this incident, Anjana decided to leave for Goa with her friends. She has been living in Goa since March with her friends. Her family filed a missing person complaint and the police called her friends, but Anjana had decided to leave Kerala.
From the last two months, Anjana was in contact with Sahayatrika, a human rights organization working for LGBTQ people in Kerala. Ahana, an activist at Sahayatrika said, “We intervened when she was forcibly taken to a de-addiction centre. We were thinking of filing a case against the family but the police were not very helpful. In the last few years, there is better awareness but the attitude of the police towards these communities is often hostile.”
Deepa Vasudevan, founder of Sahayatrika says, “Changes in law and recognition of legal rights of the LGBTQ community does not mean change in the understanding and attitude of the society. A lot of work needs to be done in bringing awareness among the families and the general public about the LGBTQ community.
