Calcutta Pride 2008
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Behind masks or out and loud: gay marchers break new ground
Delhi holds first parade as campaigners seek to overturn 19th-century law
Maseeh Rahman, The Guardian, 30-6-2008
Yesterday was the biggest day in the life of one 26-year-old insurance agent in Delhi, yet he came to the city’s long-awaited first gay parade hiding behind a mask.
“I have to remain invisible,” he said. “If my parents see me on TV, I won’t be able to go home. And if my colleagues recognise me, there’ll be hell to pay in the office.”
The gay insurance agent is typical of millions of Indians condemned to lead a double life since, much like in Victorian Britain, they risk becoming social outcasts and even criminals if their sexual preferences are revealed.
Though the setting up of advocacy groups and helplines in recent years has given India’s homosexuals a voice and some solace, they are still largely a hidden and persecuted community. But in a sign of changing times, India’s gays, lesbians, bisexuals and the traditional hijra transsexual community came together for the first-ever Delhi Queer Pride Parade yesterday.
“We’re not protesting, we’re celebrating,” said Leslie Esteves, a member of the newly formed Delhi Queer Pride committee. “This year for the first time we felt confident about organising a parade in the capital.”
Many came in masks, but several who have partially “come out”, such as a 35-year-old lesbian chef, joined the parade without any disguise. The chef’s sexuality is known and accepted by her family and at work. Her “straight” family even marched in solidarity alongside her. Yet she remains cautious. “I’m not 100% out,” she said, not wanting to be named. “Let’s face it, India is still a very, very conservative society. Moreover, the law sees us as criminals.”
India does not explicitly outlaw homosexuality but under an 1861 penal code enacted by the British colonial government, “carnal intercourse against the order of nature between any man, woman or animal” is punishable by imprisonment up to life. The law is mainly used against paedophiles, but the high-profile arrest of four gay men in 2006 in Lucknow highlighted the fact that across India corrupt police sometimes utilise the law to blackmail and even rape homosexuals.
On Wednesday, a Delhi court will begin hearings on a petition by a gay advocacy group demanding that consensual adults be exempted from the 1861 law. Prominent Indians, including novelist Vikram Seth and economist Amartya Sen, have also demanded a change in the law.
“Anybody who leads a double life doesn’t feel good about it,” the insurance agent said. “I feel like screaming at the top of my voice that I’m gay, but I don’t have the courage. If I tell my parents, they’ll force me to go for therapy or get married. And if I tell my office colleagues, I’ll become a target of taunts and sexual harassment, and could even lose my job. A lesbian I know told her boss, and she was sacked. All my friends remain in the closet.”
Gays and lesbians feel trapped between the law and social prejudice. For some, suicide becomes the only way out. Two married women discovered in a lesbian relationship by their families burned themselves to death last month in southern Tamil Nadu state.
“Many Indians still believe that homosexuality is deviant behaviour which can be cured,” said clinical psychologist Radhika Chandiramani. “Several of my colleagues use aversion therapy to treat patients, sent by families, with electric shocks and drugs.”
But yesterday’s march gave many cause for hope. “I feel history is being created here,” said the chef, as she marched arm in arm with her parents through the streets of Delhi.
Behind masks or out and loud: gay marchers break new ground
Delhi holds first parade as campaigners seek to overturn 19th-century law
Maseeh Rahman, The Guardian, 30-6-2008
Yesterday was the biggest day in the life of one 26-year-old insurance agent in Delhi, yet he came to the city’s long-awaited first gay parade hiding behind a mask.
“I have to remain invisible,” he said. “If my parents see me on TV, I won’t be able to go home. And if my colleagues recognise me, there’ll be hell to pay in the office.”
The gay insurance agent is typical of millions of Indians condemned to lead a double life since, much like in Victorian Britain, they risk becoming social outcasts and even criminals if their sexual preferences are revealed.
Though the setting up of advocacy groups and helplines in recent years has given India’s homosexuals a voice and some solace, they are still largely a hidden and persecuted community. But in a sign of changing times, India’s gays, lesbians, bisexuals and the traditional hijra transsexual community came together for the first-ever Delhi Queer Pride Parade yesterday.
“We’re not protesting, we’re celebrating,” said Leslie Esteves, a member of the newly formed Delhi Queer Pride committee. “This year for the first time we felt confident about organising a parade in the capital.”
Many came in masks, but several who have partially “come out”, such as a 35-year-old lesbian chef, joined the parade without any disguise. The chef’s sexuality is known and accepted by her family and at work. Her “straight” family even marched in solidarity alongside her. Yet she remains cautious. “I’m not 100% out,” she said, not wanting to be named. “Let’s face it, India is still a very, very conservative society. Moreover, the law sees us as criminals.”
India does not explicitly outlaw homosexuality but under an 1861 penal code enacted by the British colonial government, “carnal intercourse against the order of nature between any man, woman or animal” is punishable by imprisonment up to life. The law is mainly used against paedophiles, but the high-profile arrest of four gay men in 2006 in Lucknow highlighted the fact that across India corrupt police sometimes utilise the law to blackmail and even rape homosexuals.
On Wednesday, a Delhi court will begin hearings on a petition by a gay advocacy group demanding that consensual adults be exempted from the 1861 law. Prominent Indians, including novelist Vikram Seth and economist Amartya Sen, have also demanded a change in the law.
“Anybody who leads a double life doesn’t feel good about it,” the insurance agent said. “I feel like screaming at the top of my voice that I’m gay, but I don’t have the courage. If I tell my parents, they’ll force me to go for therapy or get married. And if I tell my office colleagues, I’ll become a target of taunts and sexual harassment, and could even lose my job. A lesbian I know told her boss, and she was sacked. All my friends remain in the closet.”
Gays and lesbians feel trapped between the law and social prejudice. For some, suicide becomes the only way out. Two married women discovered in a lesbian relationship by their families burned themselves to death last month in southern Tamil Nadu state.
“Many Indians still believe that homosexuality is deviant behaviour which can be cured,” said clinical psychologist Radhika Chandiramani. “Several of my colleagues use aversion therapy to treat patients, sent by families, with electric shocks and drugs.”
But yesterday’s march gave many cause for hope. “I feel history is being created here,” said the chef, as she marched arm in arm with her parents through the streets of Delhi.
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Delhi, Bangalore to hold gay pride march
Anchal Vohra
Saturday, June 28, 2008 (New Delhi)
Delhi, along with Bangalore, will hold its first queer pride march on Sunday. It's a message from the gay community that they exist , and affirms their right to be respected for their sexual choices. A message that is often not heard by others forcing them to lead secret lives.
Film maker Sonali Gulati is one of the few queer people in Delhi to have come out of the closet, a reason why she often becomes the face and voice of the gay community.
''When I switch on the TV I don't see a gay or a lesbian person in it, I think it's very important to see images of ourselves. So for me it's a sort of a political action to come out and say, yes I'm a lesbian but yeah it's hard. Some may be scared that you know for being fired from their job, can be that someody's landlord, landlady will kick them out. The law is archaic, Brits have done away with it. I mean so should we,'' says Sonali.
Like Sonali, Mario has made several appearances on camera. But he understands why most prefer to remain in the shadows.
''I could be proud of myself, but I would not want my family to be physically or emotionally harmed,'' says Mario.
''Change, he says, is slowly on its way. Queer people have more spaces to express themselves, to socialise. From just one unofficially designated location where the community could meet in the city, there are now four. A number of gay support groups too are strengthening the networks. Because of the internet it's a lot more easier to meet people. Things have changed. You would have informal parties where you could meet soemone by chance. Now these kinds of things have been institutionalised,'' he further says.
Organisers say the queer pride march is about loving who we are, whether lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or straight.
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Gays martch with pride in indian cities
Rati Ramdas (Ndtv.com, Bangalore, 30-6-2008)
In a first of its kind in India, a gay pride parade was held in three Indian cities on Sunday.
Bangalore, Delhi and Kolkata saw hundreds of people embracing their identity and proudly proclaiming their sexuality through a celebration of colour and music.
Over 500 sexual minorities marched five km in Bangalore, asking for rights to exist and to repeal section 377 of the constitution, which criminalizes sexual minorities.
Many of the people, most of them from the lesbian and gay community, as well as transgender, came out most proudly with a host of supporters looking on.
For transgender like Chandni, the march was an opportunity to tell the world and her family that she was proud of her sexual identity.
Chandni struggled for over 15 years with her identity till she changed her gender. A job with an NGO that works with transgenders helped her professionally and financially. She set up home in one of Bangalore's best-known residential areas.
With an adopted daughter to raise, Chandni says she wants to make sure others like her get a chance at life.
''Nobody accepted me. My family asked me to leave. There were a lot of expectations as I was their only son but I decided I would only be happy if I face my fear. Now I have a daughter and I am happy and here to create awareness about people like me,'' said Chandni, participant.
It was not just sexual minorities that turned up at the parade. There were those who came just to show support.
''We are here to create a noise for something we believe in,'' sad Pallavi Chander, theatre personality.
''It's a celebration and people like us are out to create awareness,'' said Ekta Mittal, theatre personality.
It may have been a celebration but what Bangalore's first queer pride march has achieved is enormous, an awareness about sexual minorities which was earlier missing in the city.
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