The Madras High Court on Friday directed the school education and higher education departments to conduct training programmes and sensitise at least one teacher from every educational institution in the State regarding issues faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual and others (LGBTQIA+), so that the students could confide to them without any hesitation.
Justice N. Anand Venkatesh ordered that the training programmes, spanning over six to eight weeks, could be conducted with the assistance of non-governmental organisations working for the LGBTQIA+ community, medical professionals and persons belonging to the community. Since the summer vacation was due for the educational institutions, he said, the programmes could be started forthwith.
The directions were issued on a writ petition in which the judge had been issuing a series of directions to the Centre as well as the State government to ensure that the community gets relieved of social prejudices and to ensure that it gets the dignity it deserves. A lesbian couple from Madurai had filed the petition, through their counsel S. Manuraj, alleging harassment by their parents through the police.
