Hyderabad, February 26: Various people and members of the homosexual community in the city would be gathering for a peaceful protest in the city on Saturday after a city-based news channel aired a ‘sting operation’ on the gay community recently.
The protest, led by various NGOs like ‘Suraksha’ and ‘Expressions’, will take place on February 26 evening at 4 pm at Road No. 3, Banjara Hills, near the bus stop which is located outside the channel office.
The protest would follow on the principles of Gandhi with the protestors deciding to drop in protest letters at the office along with a white flower to convey a message of ‘get well soon’ to the members of the channel. They are also planning to display banners with slogans like ‘stop violating human rights’, ‘stop interfering in personal lives’ etc.
The “undercover reporters” of the news channel had done the ‘sting operation’ by signing up as fake gay men at a social networking site called Planetromeo.com. They gathered contact numbers and personal pictures of other members of the site and even recorded conversations they had with them without their permission. They asked extremely personal questions about their physical statistics, sexual preferences and positions in the conversation, which were aired along with their profile pictures. The undercover reporters also went to a gay party in the city and aired clippings of it.
Various people who are agitated with the irresponsible actions of the channel are planning to join the protest. “What happened is awful! I am glad they are having a protest and I will definitely be there. It happened to the gay community today, but it could happen to anyone else tomorrow,” said Saahil, an employee at an city MNC.
–Agencies