MissMalini Has Joined Hands With Elton J Fernandez for The Enbies 2020 powered by Maybelline New York—India’s first-ever virtual awards for the LGBTQIA+ community
MissMalini Entertainment is proud to be associated with The Enbies—the first-ever digital awards for the LGBTQIA+ community. The brainchild of celebrity makeup artist, Elton J Fernandez, this digital event aims at building awareness about the spectrum of gender and sexuality within the community as well as to its allies. By leveraging the benefits of the digital platform and using this award show format, The Enbies will honour individuals as well as organisations that have worked towards the goal of inclusion and upliftment for all. Supporters, champions and allies of the community will take centre stage and be recognised for their contributions to the community.
MissMalini Entertainment Pvt Ltd the company has always been an ally of the community and has strived to do its part in working towards a more inclusive future for everyone on the spectrum from cisgender to transsexual and from straight to bisexual. The company stands firm in the belief that there is a place for everyone in this world no matter who you love or how you identify and believes that it’s not just about saying the words but also following it up with actions of support. And that is why this association was a seamless fit. Aside from a strong friendship as well as a working relationship over many years with Elton, Malini has also been a long-standing ally for the community. Putting those two points together with the fact that inclusion and awareness are over-arching company goals as well, this partnership was a no-brainer. With the Malini’s Girl Tribe community too, inclusion is a huge focus. Through discussion, content creation and awareness building with the lens of positivity, empathy and kindness, the community is also seeking to ensure that everyone understands that gender is a spectrum and all experiences, diverse as they may be, are valid. We firmly believe that trans rights are human rights and transwomen are women too and this community is for all women.
“I truly believe that if we treat everyone with kindness and empathy and open ourselves to understanding other experiences, acceptance will follow soon after. That is why awareness is the first step towards inclusion and equal rights. And I also believe that this doesn’t have to be a heavy fight, we can also strive to get the importance of ‘inclusion’ across and still keep it light, which is why a concept like The Enbies is a seamless fit when it comes to achieving our mission as allies of the LGBTQIA+ community,” explains Malini Agarwal, Founder and Creative Director of MissMalini Entertainment Pvt Ltd, on the decision to partner up with this digital show.
“I’ve partnered with MissMalini because Malini has been a long-time ally and friend and she has taken multiple stands in her capacity to expand and open up seating at the table. Not only that, MissMalini Entertainment is also one of the biggest digital media platforms and ultimately, we need to reach larger numbers of cisgender, heterosexual allies as well if we truly want to share community safe spaces that are representative of India's diverse populace. We can’t gain momentum as a larger movement if we only focus on the minority LGBTQIA+ community. I think it’s very important to work with allies because you cannot further a movement if you don’t have numbers and clout. And to all our naysayers, let's see what you've done with your time in lockdown during this heartbreaking pandemic.” Elton Fernandez smilingly added.
Further, on the event itself, Elton said, “We are stoked to share with you that our broadcast of the first-ever ENBY Awards Program on 10.10.2020 will showcase 15 award categories stands not just to acknowledge & honor India's larger Queer Movement, but more importantly aims to empower young leaders of the future & redirect focus to under-represented minorities & raise funds for organisations that champion social change & work towards the upliftment of LGBTQ+ minorities. Our ‘ENBY Health Fund’ will allocate money towards Queer Mental Health on an annual basis.”
The objective of this event is very basically inclusion and awareness about the spectrum, which is clear from the choice of name itself. Enby (pronounced en-bee) is the phonetic pronunciation of ‘NB’ that stands for ‘Non-Binary’. A non-binary person is one who doesn’t identify specifically as male or female. In addition, The Enbies also want the members of the LGBTQIA+ community to recognise their own skills and contributions and not wait for approval from the mainstream in any way.
There will be 15 award categories and a panel that includes powerhouses from the queer community like Sushant Divgikar, Praful Baweja and Zainab Patel. There will also be a lot of performances and exclusive collaborations with allies of the community such as Anushka Manchanda, Raja Kumari, Arman Menzies, Alisha Batth and Sona Mohapatra among others.
All in all, this tongue-in-cheek event is meant to be fun with a purpose.