Category: Events

National Coming Out Day and International Mental Health Day It was great to be joined by representatives from across South Asian LGBTQ+ groups as we discussed the concept of Coming Out and what it means to us. Panellists: Pavan Joshi – From India, came from Rajasthan in 2004 – dancer, writer, blogger, mental health specialist […]

We may not have the much needed air conditioner that we all need a few summer weeks every year in the UK but we have a insightful talk about an interesting person we all know a bit about and also of an empire formed under his leadership. We are humbled to have fantastic allies such […]

Open Minds April 2020 – Community during lockdown It was great to see a mixture of longstanding and newer members at June’s online Open Minds meeting last week. We talked about the word ‘community’ and how our sense of community has been affected by the lockdown. We took advantage of Zoom’s new breakout room function and people […]

A heartfelt thanks to those who joined us on 28th May and shared their observations and reflections about Sikhi faith and culture. The conversations were inspired by the experiences of a few Sarbat members who are enrolled in the Harvard online course “Sikhism through the scriptures” (scroll down for more info on this). We navigated many difficult topics with passion […]

Open Minds April 2020 – Speaking with our Parents  Thank you to all those who took part in our second online Open Minds meeting on the 29th of April 2020. This was our second April meeting. For some of us we have the privilege of being able to use the lockdown as a time to reflect and refocus our priorities. […]

Open Minds April 2020 – Looking After Ourselves During Lockdown Thank you to all those who took part in our online Open Minds meeting on the 15th of April 2020. It was our eleventh Open Minds meeting and we were joined by people from Birmingham, London and the south of the UK. The Open Minds project is a way for Punjabi LGBTQ+ people to share their experiences […]

Sarbat commenced a series of #SarbatSocial and Shraddha reflects in the article below. A few days after the PM announced a country-wide lockdown in the UK, we at Sarbat looked for alternative solutions to continue providing a platform for Sikh LGBT+ individuals and our allies to meet and come together. We know that members of […]

Makinder shares his reflections of the #SarbatSocial he hosted.

See below for a complete schedule of our ongoing series of #SarbatSocials and #OpenMinds. If interested, please sign up using the event links in the newsletter or on social media. The online meetings typically last 1 hour – 1 hour 15 minutes and are facilitated by Sarbat volunteers. We hope to provide a relaxed, warm […]

Thank you to St Luke’s Community Centre for hosting February’s Open Minds (Khula Mana) LGBTQ+ Support Group. The group was facilitated by Dr Kuljit Bhogal on behalf of Sarbat and Taraki. It was great to see a mix of new and familiar faces. We started the discussion by talking about our own LGBTQ+ histories and […]

#OpenMinds #Punjabi #LGBTQ support group came to #Birmingham last week. The first meeting was to find out what the group should look like and how it should run. From our conversations it became clear that a safe space is needed for Punjabi LGBTQ+ people to connect in Birmingham. People were mainly from a #Sikh Punjabi’s, […]

At January’s #OpenMinds LGBTQ+ Punjabi support group we talked about success and praise in Punjabi culture. Traditional values have different expectations of men and women. Marriage and children can raise your status and being lgbtq+ can cause shame and guilt. Status is like having stocks or shares in a company and being #lgbtq+ can make […]

Coping with Christmas Thank you to St Luke’s Community Centre for hosting December’s Open Minds (Khula Mana) LGBTQ+ Support Group. The group was facilitated by Dr Kuljit Bhogal on behalf of Sarbat and Taraki. This is a summary of some of what was discussed. The Christmas period is a time when many people willingly or […]

Gender Stereotypes in Sikh Punjabi Culture  Thank you to St Luke’s Community Centre for hosting Octobers’ Open Minds (Khula Mana) LGBTQ+ Support Group. The group was facilitated by Dr Kuljit Bhogal on behalf of Sarbat and Taraki. We were lucky to be joined by both of the facilitators of the Taraki Mens Forum (Chai in […]

Fifth #OpenMinds on 30th of October 2019