Ashok Row Kavi, the founder Chairperson of Mumbai-based Humsafar Trust has stepped down from his post.
The Indian journalist and LGBT rights activist had founded the Trust in 1994. It provides counselling, advocacy and healthcare to members of the LGBT community, and today, is one of the largest and most active of such organisations in India.
Over the years, the Humsafar Trust has crossed many milestones -- from creating many films to being the primary organiser of Project Bolo, an Indian LGBT oral history project funded by the United Nations Development Programme, the last 25 years have been eventful.
The organisation has also developed a recommendation language manual for print and electronic media for correct reporting on LGBT issues, and launched an initiative to nurture journalists in the community.
In 2018, before parts of Section 377 were scrapped, Kavi had been one of the individuals who filed a petition urging the SC to decriminalise same-sex relations.
As the Trust's website elaborates, "Ashok Row Kavi, The Humsafar Trust founder Chairperson, Vivek Anand, CEO, Suhail Abbasi, trustee, and its staff members Yashwinder Singh and Gautam Yadav were petitioners before the Supreme Court."
