Indulekshmi Rajeswari (better known as Indu) is a lawyer and LGBT activist.
She identifies as a bisexual woman and co-founded Sayoni, a queer women's advocacy group, when she was in her teens.
As a law undergraduate at the National University of Singapore, she assisted human rights lawyer M Ravi in his challenge against the constitutionality of Section 377A of the Penal Code on behalf of his client Tan Eng Hong.
Later, she persuaded long-term gay couple Gary Lim and Kenneth Chee to join in the constitutional challenge to present a more conservative face to the case and formed part of their legal team.
She is the main author of the book, "Same But Different: A Singapore LGBT Legal Guide For Couples & Families", modelled after LGBT guidebooks in other countries such as the United States.
She initiated the project because her friends, who did not know other LGBT-friendly lawyers, frequently asked her about the law and their LGBT relationships but she did not have the answers.
A GiveAsia campaign was launched in late February 2017 to fund the project. The team hit their target of $10,000 in under 24 hours and has since raised it to $15,000 - to print 2,000 copies. As of Monday (13 March 2017), almost $18,000 had been raised.
The guidebook was distributed to LGBT organisations and made available for free online.
Indu currently resides in Germany with her husband.
See also[]
References[]
- Sean Foo, "Out Of The Closet: Indulekshmi Rajeswari Shares Her Story", Dear Straight People, 29 November 2016[1].
- Kok Xing Hui, "Team of lawyers create guidebook for LGBT couples in Singapore", The Straits Times, 13 March 2017[2].
Acknowledgements[]
This article was written by Roy Tan.