Sarbat LGBT Sikhs
See below for a complete schedule of our ongoing series of #SarbatSocials and #OpenMinds. If interested, please sign up using the event links given below. The online meetings typically last 1 hour – 1 hour 15 minutes and are facilitated by Sarbat volunteers. We hope to provide a relaxed, warm and compassionate atmosphere to invite […]
Sarbat Reads, the book club that focuses on Sikh and LGBT+ issues powered by sarbat.net, read My Magical Palace by Kunal Mukherjee in the month of August 2020. Here’s a short review based on the discussion we had: My Magical Palace by Kunal Mukherjee takes you along on an exciting journey in the 70’s India […]
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 […]
Simrat (an alias) shares his reflections on Sarbat and the need for online communities Hello everyone and welcome to my article. My name is Simrat and I am a 19 year old boy, and here is my story. I realised from the age of about 15 that I wasn’t straight, but I think at that […]
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 […]
Raj Kaur, writer and editor of Reviews by Sarbat. It is fair to say that RuPaul’s Drag Race has become somewhat of a phenomenon in recent years and has accumulated a mass following from the LGBTQIA+ network. The show recently wrapped up season 12 and has had multiple spin offs from its inception in 2009 […]
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 […]
Raj Kaur, writer and editor of Reviews by Sarbat. The L Word: Generation Q is the long-awaited sequel to The L Word series which aired from 2004 to 2009. The L Word enjoyed 6 successful seasons and was often commented to be ahead of its time; it was one of the first (Will and Grace […]
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.
These are guidelines for individuals interested in attending online Sarbat meetings (e.g. Zoom video conferencing) during and after the Coronavirus pandemic. We will share our upcoming meetings via our social media channels (Facebook / Twitter/Instagram) and/or via our newsletter (click here to subscribe). To join these online meetings, you would need to download Zoom on […]
Sarbat volunteer Shraddha Kaur writes this blog post is in response to an email we received regarding being an ally in a religious household. Shraddha thinks each household comes with its own history, ingrained prejudice and ways of communication that can take a long time to deconstruct, so don’t be disheartened if you are unable to […]
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, […]