Shamakami
Shamakami was an early organization of South Asian lesbians and bisexual women based in the United States. They published a newsletter of the same name between June 1990 and February 1997. Founding According to co-founder Sharmeen Islam, shamakami is a Bengali term meaning "love for your equal or same." Willy Wilkinson describes it as a reclaimed word describing a woman who desires other women, and Monisha Das Gupta describes it as an "excavated indigenous term" meaning "those who desire their equals." Wrote Islam in A Lotus of Another Color in 1993:"Shamakami was formed with two visions in mind: the creation of a structured way of networking for South Asian lesbians and the creation of a forum in which we can express our sexuality and feminism in our own cultural context. In 1990, Shamakami had no funds, an initial membership of about 40, and a collective of about nine women. Today the organization provides free circulation of newsletters in South Asia, has a membership of 230, and has an active collective of about twenty women. This year, a woman from Assam, one of the more remote parts of India, connected with two lesbians in different parts of India through Shamakami and