New Delhi: Actor Kalki Koechlin lends her support to IICE Vodka’s Holding Hands Campaign to end intolerance to the LGBT community. This campaign was recently triggered as Parliament yet again failed to amend Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. The campaign also staunchly supports freedom of speech and thought, privacy and same sex love.
Kalki Koechlin is the focal point of IICE Vodka’s digital campaign, and addresses issues like LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) that patriarchal and conservative societies grapple with, in their struggle to modernize. Parliament recently defeated move to amend Section 377, which criminalizes a community for “voluntarily having carnal intercourse against the order of nature” with imprisonment of up to ten years and which can even be extended to imprisonment for life.
The IICE Vodka Holding Hands Campaign refers to same sex love also referred to as forbidden love, and proposes freedom to love whomsoever we want to, without discrimination on the basis of caste, sex, religion or region. It highlights the frustrations of Indian youth not allowed to make their own choices. The effort behind the IICE Vodka Holding Hands Campaign is to inspire young Indians to find the courage it takes—and it takes a lot—to come out and love themselves for who they are.
Talking about Jagatjit Industries and IICE Vodka’s Holding Hands Campaign Actor Kalki Koechlin says, “I reiterate my stand on freedom to love and express feelings. I’m just doing my bit to change things. The focus is on the youth brigade of India and Jagatjit Industries has outdone itself with the Holding Hands Campaign. In this campaign, we have continued to support and welcome the LGBT community and freedom to love without discrimination on the basis of caste, sex, religion or region.”