GAY Blackmail; Report in the making

I am a researcher/lawyer currently working on a human rights report documenting stories of blackmail/extortion faced by gay and bisexual men, mainly in Mumbai and also other cities in India.

The GayBombay group has been documenting stories (on their website www.gaybombay.org) of blackmail where gay men have been entrapped by the Police over the internet, their credit/debit cards stolen and their savings withdrawn under the threat of Police arrest or disclosure to families.

On the other hand there are more common stories where gaymen in cruising areas have met some guy who takes them to a hotel, a quiet street corner, or home and robs them of all their belongings.

All these instances of blackmail/extortion are criminal offences, but rarely has a gay person filed a police complaint against such blackmail. Most of us fear being arrested by the police due to the continued presence of s.377 (the anti sodomy law).

Also, none of these stories have ever been documented and put together in a report, both so that we can use that as a tool against the police/goverment and judiciary and also educate members of the community to be more careful in the future.

This report is an attempt to fill that gap. So if anyone of you has ever been blackmailed by being placed under a threat of arrest or disclosure of sexual orientation to your family and do not mind talking about it - then please write to me on galok2005@gmail.com.

I am looking to conduct interviews, which will be anonymous, no names or photographs will be taken

The report will be published under the aegis of the Public Interest Legal Support and Research Centre (pilsarc) .