Tag: homosexuality

Adarsh Sukumaran and Paulson Skaria talk about scripting ‘Kaathal – The Core’

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The crowd favourite of International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) 2022 was Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Mammootty-starrer Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam. Among the delegates who thronged the theatres to watch the movie was Adarsh Sukumaran and Paulson Skaria.

Little did the scriptwriter duo know that their movie, Kaathal-The Core, the Mammootty-Jyothika starrer directed by Jeo Baby, would be welcomed the same way at the next edition of the IFFK. “We had come to IFFK last year after the shoot of Kaathal…. Seeing the crowd for Nanpakal… we wondered if we would be able to bring Kaathal… to the next IFFK. It was a wonderful moment when that dream was fulfilled this year and all shows were jam-packed,” says Adarsh.

Paulson adds, “We didn’t expect the film to be welcomed so warmly especially since it is still running in cinemas. We knew that the film would be discussed but not to this extent. Even Jeo chettan (Jeo Baby) did not expect this response.”

Paulson Skaria (left) and Adarsh Sukumaran
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Kaathal… is the story of Mathew Devassy (Mammootty), a retired bank manager, who is all set to contest a local panchayat election when his wife of 20 years, Omana (Jyothika), files for divorce stating that her husband is in a relationship with a man, Thankan (Sudhi Kozhikode), who runs a driving school. Mathew, father to a teenager, is in denial but manages to come out towards the end.

Adarsh, 29, and Paulson, 27, debuted as scenarists with the surprise hit of the year, Neymar, a breezy story of an indie dog. Adarsh is also the co-writer of the blockbuster of the year,RDX, with Shabas Rasheed. In a chat with MetroPlus, the duo talks about finding their way in Malayalam cinema, the success of Kaathal… and more.

The duo says that it was their love for cinema that brought them together. “We have been friends for over 10 years now. Although we didn’t study together (Paulson is an engineer, while Adarsh is a post graduate in television journalism) our colleges were on the same campus (Mar Athanious College, Kothamangalam). Our common friend Devadath Shaji (co-writer of Bheeshma Parvam) used to make short films and we used to work in it. That’s how we met,” says Paulson.

They used to write stories and often shared them with each other. “After a point, when it became a question of surviving in the industry, we decided to write together. Kaathal… was our first joint script,” he adds.

Their original plan was to write the story about two thugs and their friendship. “We remembered this scene in Vettayadu Vilayaadu in which Kamal Hassan’s character asks two villains if they were homosexuals! It so happened that while preparing for my civil service exams I came across several articles on revocation of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (law that criminalises same-sex relations). Eventually, we decided to write the story of a family,” says Paulson.

They did not approach Jeo Baby initially because he usually direct his own scripts. But no one else was ready to take up the project. “We decided to give it a try with Jeo chettan as advised by a friend. We met him in October 2021. He took us on board, reworked the script with us. It his suggestion to have Mammookka [Mammootty]. It was Mammookka’s idea to cast Jyothika ma’am as Omana. Thus everything fell in place,” Adarsh says.

The writers say they learnt more about the subject as they wrote. “We read books, met people from the community, and that opened a whole new world to us,” Paulson says. Adarsh adds: ”We followed debates and discussions about the topic. We also consulted legal experts, especially with regard to points regarding the subject. We had heard about a similar court case while writing the script but couldn’t get the details.”

The duo admits that working with Jeo has been a learning experience because his perspectives influenced them as he knew more about the subject and how to handle it. “That helped us to break our conditioning about the subject. Now when the silences in the film are getting celebrated, the credit should go to the director. Our script had more conversations,” Paulson points out. They also appreciate the fact that Jeo involved them in every aspect of the movie, including designing the poster and title.

Discussions aplenty

The film has left the field wide open for discussions about homosexuality and the writers are excited about it. “We were overwhelmed by some of the comments and observations posted on social media handles. Many real-life stories are now in the open because of this film. We are happy that the film has worked with families as well, although we didn’t make any deliberate attempts to bring the family audience to the theatres,” Paulson comments. They are also pleased with the fact their families have loved the movie.

The film is another proof for how Mammootty is reinventing himself as an actor, they say. “We feel that he is some 10 years ahead of us, which probably comes from his experience, his reading and his interaction with others. He came up with several important suggestions that elevated some of the scenes,” Adarsh observes. Paulson adds, “He has put in subtle nuances in his scenes, which most of us in the crew noticed when we rewatched the movie.”

(From left) Adarsh Sukumaran, Paulson Skaria, Jeo Baby and Mammootty on the set of Kaathal - The Core

(From left) Adarsh Sukumaran, Paulson Skaria, Jeo Baby and Mammootty on the set of Kaathal – The Core
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

While Paulson picks Mathew’s interaction with his daughter in college as his favourite scene, Adarsh chooses the multi-shot sequence showing Mathew’s emotional interaction with his father, Omana’s reaction from the other room and her scene with Mathew that follows.

Hits in their kitty

Their first project to release was Neymar directed by Sudhi Madisson. “The project came to us through our friend, Justin Mathew (co-writer of Minnal Murali). We didn’t have to struggle much as there was already a director and production house. We had to crack the script by breaking the cliches on the subject of human-animal bond,” Paulson says.

The hit parade continued for Adarsh with RDX, the action-packed family drama. “Nahas (Nahas Hidayath, director of RDX), approached me with a real-life story and we (he and co-writer Shabas) had to come up with a script around that,” he says.

Facing the camera

Kaathal… is Adarsh’s 12th film as an actor and marked Paulson’s debut before the camera. Adarsh played a politician, while Paulson was cast as the pragmatic priest, Fr Jomon. “I debuted in Amal Neerad’s Varathan and am now acting with Mammookka in Turbo. I enjoy that. I have been a mimicry artiste as well and have done shows on Malayalam channels,” Adarsh says. “I felt that it is fairly easy to act if you are the writer as well!” Paulson says.

Paulson is already writing a project for Basil Joseph, while Adarsh has completed a script with another friend, Able Baby.

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‘In Senegal, homophobia follows you even after death’: Corpse exhumed, burned by mob

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A mob in a small town in Senegal dug up the body of a man suspected of being gay, dragged his body through town and then burned it during the night of October 28, 2023. While there have been other instances of exhumations of people suspected of being gay, the incident that took place in Kaolack, a town 200 kilometres southeast of Dakar, is different because it was filmed and posted online, says our Observer, a member of a group dedicated to the upholding the human rights of LGBTQ Africans.

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WARNING: This article contains descriptions of violence that some readers may find distressing. We have included screengrabs but have decided not to share the videos.

A number of videos posted on social media document a group of men digging up a man’s body, tying his remains with rope and dragging them on the ground, before burning them on a pyre made of old tyres and bales of hay. The footage shows men turning around the fire in a frenzy and throwing things into the flames in front of dozens of onlookers, who film the scene with their cellphones.

Out of respect for the victim, our team has decided not to share explicit images of the exhumed body. In one of the videos, shared as an Instagram livestream and then reposted on TikTok and X (formerly Twitter), a man explains to the camera in Wolof and then in French: “We caught a homosexual and we burned him,” as the body is seen behind him. 

This is a screengrab of a video widely shared on social media. In the foreground of the footage, you can see pyre of tires and hay bales where the exhumed body is being burned (though you cannot distinguish the body here.) In the background, you can see a crowd of onlookers filming the scene. You can see the light emitted by their phones. Observers

Other videos show a large crowd gathering in front of the cemetery of the Léona Niassène mosque, watching the scene. A number of these onlookers film the scene.  

This is a screengrab showing the crowd gathering in front of the fire where the body was burned in front of Léona Niassène cemetery.
This is a screengrab showing the crowd gathering in front of the fire where the body was burned in front of Léona Niassène cemetery. Observers

Senegalese officials have not released the name of the victim, who they refer to by his initials, “CF”. CF was in his 30s when he died and was interred by his family in the Léona Niassène cemetery on October 27. A mob dug up his body and burned it the very next day. 

‘You wouldn’t even treat an animal that way’

In many of the videos of the event circulating online, you can hear people saying “goor-jigeen”, which literally means “man-woman” in Wolof and is used to refer to gay men.

The people who carried out this extreme violence were motivated by rumours that the man was gay. Homosexuality is a crime in Senegal and carries a sentence of up to five years in prison.

Our team spoke to a member of the Idaho Committee, which works to protect LGBTQ rights in Africa. Our Observer wanted to remain anonymous for security reasons.

He and his team were able to get Facebook to take down a video showing the young man’s body being dragged out of his tomb.

This footage has had a terrible impact on the many members of the Senegalese LGBTQ community who have left the country. You wouldn’t even treat an animal this way – digging it up and burning it. Already, it is hard enough to protect the living. But here in Senegal, homophobia follows you even after death. 

Being gay in Senegal means being rejected by your family and losing your friends. If someone discovers your sexual orientation, then your social life is over. 

To my knowledge, this is the first time that a body has been burned in public and that the scene was filmed and shared like this on social media. But exhumations are sadly not new in Senegal. 

There have been a number of documented cases where groups of men have dug up a body and then brought the remains to the home of the victim’s mother.  The victims are people suspected of being gay or, even more commonly, people suspected of being HIV positive.

Senegal’s state prosecutor Abasse Yaya Wane released a statement on Sunday stating that an investigation into the matter had been opened. Four people were arrested on Monday, October 30. Authorities have reported that a fifth person, thought to be an instigator, is on the run. All of the men were identified through the videos posted online.

The religious leader of Léona Niassène mosque condemned the incident in a statement published on October 29. The statement also refuted “erroneous information” that the religious community in Léona Niassène had been involved.

“Our community condemns any kind of violence, intolerance and attack on people’s private lives,” the statement reads. 


“I commend the wise and humanist position of the khalif of Leona Niassène Serigne Cheikh Tidiane Niasse,” reads this post in French on X that features a statement made by the leader of the religious community.

Our Observer says that this kind of reaction is unprecedented:

We were surprised in the best way when we saw that the prosecutor had already opened an investigation. This, along with the statement from the religious leader condemning the act, are new positions. The khalif actually has stepped out of the fray and has even said that people should not get involved in the private lives of others. It’s quite courageous of him. 

Under Senegalese law, the maximum sentence for anyone found responsible for these acts would be one year in prison [Editor’s note: according to Article 354 of the Senegalese penal code]. I am calling on Senegalese authorities to increase the prison terms for people convicted for these kinds of acts. One year isn’t enough for what is barbarism carried out by a mob in a public space. There is nothing in the Koran or in Islam that says that gay people must be dug up and burned, which means the motivation isn’t religious, it is an inhuman act from human barbarism… What else could we call it?



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Evolution isn’t against same-sex behaviour in monkeys: study

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In 1896, controversy broke out when French entomologist Henri Gadeau de Kerville published the first sketch of two male cockchafers, a species of scarab beetles, copulating.

More than a century later, in 2012, researchers at the Tring Natural History Museum in the U.K. rediscovered a four-page pamphlet originally published in 1915 by the English naturalist George Levick. It seems Levick had observed same-sex sexual behaviour (SSB) in Adélie penguins.

Since then, scientists have reported SSB in pigeons, swans, albatrosses, lions, dolphins, bats, elephants, bonobos, gorillas, monkeys, lizards, tortoises, dragonflies, fruit flies, and bed bugs.

Animals that engage in SSB have been considered a ‘Darwinian paradox’: if reproduction is critical to evolution, then SSB – which is non-reproductive – should have ceased to exist. The supposed paradox is also fed by a longstanding belief among biologists that SSB could be evolutionarily “costly” to species because it leads to fewer offspring, thus reducing the chances of evolution mediated by natural selection.

Now, in a study published in July in Nature Ecology & Evolution, researchers at the Imperial College London have challenged the premise of this paradox. The team, led by postdoctoral fellow Jackson Clive, has reported that at least in rhesus macaques, male SSB is remarkably common and “is not [evolutionarily] costly”.

Volker Sommer, a professor of evolutionary anthropology at University College London, said the study is the first to find evidence that SSB has a “heritable component” in the case of animals. He wasn’t involved in the study.

Island of the monkeys

For their study, Dr. Clive and his team observed rhesus macaques, a common monkey model, in Cayo Santiago, an island east of Puerto Rico.

In 1938, researchers from Columbia University and the University of Puerto Rico shipped hundreds of monkeys from India to the island to establish a “disease-free breeding colony of monkeys in order to provide animals for research on tropical diseases.”

Today, the island is home to more than 1,700 descendants of the original population. The monkeys are surveyed every day. Every year, researchers study newborns to determine their paternal and maternal lineages.

For Dr. Clive & co., the island offered a large population of free-ranging monkeys as well as comprehensive data to answer their question: Is SSB heritable?

The heritability question

For three years, the researchers documented the frequency of same-sex and different-sex mounting by rhesus monkeys under observation. Mounting, according to a 2021 paper, is  “sexual behaviour without a reproductive function”, making it an apt “sociosexual behaviour”.

Dr. Clive’s team observed 236 male macaques and found that “72% … engaged in same-sex mounting, in comparison with 46% for different-sex mounting,” per their paper.

Having discovered the high frequency of SSB in their study population, the authors turned their attention to its heritability – an idea mired in controversy.

In 1993, American geneticist Dean Hamer found that the human X-chromosome has a region whose transmission through the members of a family corresponded to “same-sex orientation” of male individuals in that family. Dr. Hamer concluded that “at least one subtype of male sexual orientation is genetically influenced.”

But then anotherstudy, published in 2019 in Science, examined more than half a million human genomes and found that while five “spots” in the genome were potentially related to same-sex behaviour, none of them had the power to predict one’s sexuality.

Instead of attempting to find one or many genes that could determine a monkey’s proclivity for SSB, the Imperial College researchers used two statistical measures: repeatability and heritability.

According to Dr. Clive, repeatability measures the amount by which “differences between individuals” determines variation in a certain behaviour. Heritability, on the other hand, measures the amount by which such variation could be attributed to “relatedness between individuals (i.e. genetics)”.

The researchers found that male SSB was at least partly heritable.

They also calculated a different statistical measure called “evolvability”, which gives an estimate of a behaviour’s potential to evolve over time due to natural selection.

Their calculations suggest that male SSB in rhesus monkeys is “polygenic”: influenced by more than one gene. The estimates indicated that male SSB was “strongly influenced” by non-genetic factors, including a monkey’s interaction with others in the population and the environment.

The results agree with those from genetic studies on human SSB: that there is no single “gay gene” – a deleterious idea that was deflated by the large 2019 study – in monkeys or humans.

As science communicator Nsikan Akpan wrote then, “polygenic traits can be strongly influenced by the environment, meaning there’s no clear winner in this ‘nature versus nurture’ debate.”

Clive et al.’s conclusions also challenge the idea that genetics alone determines one’s sexual behaviour – i.e. the idea of genetic determinism. Instead, the modest role of genetics appears to complement that of an organism’s interaction with others and its environment. 

No trade-off with reproductive fitness

The idea that SSB might be evolutionarily expensive hinges on the idea that animals that engage in it more often have fewer opportunities for sexual behaviour involving partners of different sexes, especially unto reproduction. The latter is called different-sex sexual behaviour (DSB).

In the new study, the researchers found three reasons to question this assumption.

First: they observed that all the sexually active males in their cohort barring one were “behaviourally bisexual”, so they had or will have an “opportunity to pass on their genes”.

Second: an individual monkey’s proclivity for SSB wasn’t found to be correlated to that towards DSB. Just because a monkey engaged in more SSB didn’t mean it wasn’t engaging in enough DSB.

Third: the team counted the number of offspring fathered by each monkey in the cohort. “In all cases, we didn’t find that more SSB activity predicted an individual had fewer offspring,” Dr. Clive said.

According to him, this is the “strongest evidence” that SSB doesn’t exact an evolutionary cost, at least from male rhesus macaques.

In fact, the team found that pairs of monkeys engaging in SSB also formed “coalitions” against a common enemy. These bonds, according to Dr. Clive, could have an evolutionary benefit.

Aaron Sandel, an assistant professor at the University of Texas-Austin who studies social relationships in chimpanzees, affirmed the study’s observations.

“Mounting may be a way to communicate and to co-regulate emotions before a risky or stressful situation, like chasing after another monkey,” he said.

A note of caution

Dr. Clive believes future work must investigate female SSB to understand whether their findings might apply to both sexes.

The study he led couldn’t do this because, contrary to his expectations, female monkeys in the cohort weren’t engaging in “much SSB at all”.

He also said that similar studies on heritability, evolvability, and the evolutionary pros and cons of male SSB will need to be conducted with other monkey species before scientists can acquire a “macroevolutionary understanding of such behaviours.”

Dr. Clive and Dr. Sandel both also noted that scientists must be cautious to not extend the findings to humans without further evidence. Dr. Sandel in particular said that while humans and monkeys might exhibit similar behaviours, human behaviour is also influenced by cultural and social norms.

Sayantan Datta (they/them) are a queer-trans freelance science writer, communicator and journalist. They currently work with the feminist multimedia science collective TheLifeofScience.com and tweet at @queersprings.

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Arrests highlight the growing ‘criminalisation’ of LGBT+ people in Venezuela

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Thirty-three people were arrested in a popular spot among the LGBT+ community in Valencia, Venezuela on July 23. After the arrest, the people’s names, photos and ID cards were shared in the media and online. Since being released, they are still awaiting legal proceedings. Venezuelan associations have denounced what they see as a growing trend of “criminalisation” of LGBT+ individuals and institutionalised homophobia in Venezuela. 

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On July 23, police arrested 33 people at the Avalon Man Club, a private sauna and spa frequented by the LGBT+ community in Valencia, in the northern Venezuelan state of Carabobo. The operation was allegedly carried out after an anonymous tip-off.

The people were taken to the police station, where they were photographed lined up along a wall. Police photographed their belongings, including identity papers, mobile phones and condoms. These images were shared in the local media and on social networks with their identities left unredacted. Their names and ages were shared publicly as well. 

These photos of the 33 people arrested in Valencia, Venezuela, on July 23 were distributed without redaction (black bars added by the FRANCE 24 Observers team). Observers

This photo showed the mobile phones and identity documents of the people arrested in Valencia, Venezuela, on July 23, as well as condoms. Blurring added by the FRANCE 24 Observers team.
This photo showed the mobile phones and identity documents of the people arrested in Valencia, Venezuela, on July 23, as well as condoms. Blurring added by the FRANCE 24 Observers team. Observers

‘The police and local media have stigmatised and criminalised them’

Jau Ramírez is the director of SOMOS, a movement working for the rights of sexual minorities in Venezuela.

These 33 people were arrested arbitrarily, without a judicial warrant or search warrant. What’s more, the police and local media then spread personal information about them and declared that one of them had HIV, in order to stigmatise them, criminalise them, give the impression that they were a danger to society, and thus justify the violation of their rights. At first, it was even said that they were taking part in an orgy and filming pornographic scenes…

A number of journalists’ organisations have also criticised the way in which certain media outlets have handled the case, adopting all the information provided by the police.

On Twitter, the National College of Journalists (CNP) said that “reproducing information that stigmatises and denigrates the people involved” was a “violation of human rights”, and pointed out that the media should “respect the presumption of innocence and protect the identity of anyone accused of illegal acts”.


In this video broadcast on July 26, the men arrested in Valencia are transported by the police in pick-ups.

Charged with, among other things, public indecency

On July 26, the 33 people were taken to the Valencia courthouse. The court upheld three charges brought by the public prosecutor against them: public indecency – an offence punishable by several months in prison – as well as unlawful association and noise pollution. At the end of the hearing, 30 of them were released, but with the obligation to report to the authorities every 30 days.


“Justice, justice”, chanted people gathered outside the Valencia courthouse as the arrested men got off a bus on July 25, the date initially scheduled for the hearing.


“There is no crime”, shout the protesters gathered outside the Valencia courthouse on July 26 to demand the release of the 33 men.

On August 2, the three others – the owner of the establishment and two employees – were also released. They too have to report back every 30 days.

But things did not end there. The charges against them have not been dismissed, despite demands from activists. On August 1, the public prosecutor announced that the case could possibly be dismissed. 

‘The current situation sets a legal precedent’

Jau Ramírez continued: 

Between January 2021 and December 2022, we documented 11 arbitrary arrests of LGBTIQ+ people, carried out by the security forces. In four cases, they were accompanied by extortion, physical, verbal and psychological violence and acts of torture. There were also four police raids on LGBTIQ+ leisure facilities in Caracas, Maracaibo and Mérida. 

So the case of the 33 people arrested is not a first. But in previous cases, the people were released after a few hours, without being reported to the police or charged with any offence. In this case, the people have remained in detention for a long time, without any justification, and the charges against them are unclear and questionable. 

We therefore consider that the current situation set a legal precedent. We haven’t seen anything like this in Venezuela since the late 1990s. Since the beginning of this case, the police and judiciary have acted in a homophobic manner, with the aim of criminalising LGBTIQ+ people.

This escalation of repression is a threat to the fundamental rights and sexual and personal freedoms of everyone in Venezuela.


Rally on July 28 in Caracas to ” demand an end to the criminalisation of people from the #LGBTIQ+ community in Venezuela”.

Closer links between the authorities and evangelicals

For Jau Ramírez, this repression goes hand in hand with “the interference of ultra-religious groups and their dogmatism in state institutions”. He cites a few examples:

In 2019, President Nicolás Maduro created the National Day of the Evangelical Pastor. In 2022, his son was appointed vice president of religious affairs within the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, a new position. In 2023, Nicolás Maduro also created the “My well-equipped church” programme [Editor’s note: equipping evangelical groups with seats, fans, microphones, etc.].

Nicolás Maduro has recently forged closer ties to certain evangelical sectors, which have been very active in opposing the rights of the LGBT+ community. In July, the government decided that religious groups would be consulted on any legislative initiative involving the family. This rapprochement is part of a “political strategy” with a view to 2024 and the presidential election, according to the Spanish daily El País. 

Venezuela’s LGBT+ community has been fighting for years against discrimination and for access to equal rights, including marriage for all. In March 2023, the courts overturned a provision that provided for a prison sentence of between one and three years for military personnel accused of “unnatural sexual acts”. 



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