Achha listen, I know India has Pride Parades and that the first Indian pride parade in 1999 was in Kolkata. However, same-sex marriage hasn’t been legalized till today. Online, there’s a loving and accepting LGBTQ+ community where there’s no hate (ignoring the heaps of homophobes) and you can find people who face similar issues. But when I go offline, where are these people? I can literally handpick the people who are part of the community. Where my queer homies at? Where and why are y’all hiding?
For some godamned reason, people believe that being queer is a sin. People are selective with what they pickup from religious texts. Aadha sahi, aadha galat. One part of it is apparently believable and makes sense while the other part doesn’t. Which is obviously unfair. I fail to understand how it hurts society when someone comes out as queer. It doesn't affect anyone whatsoever, but yet they have a ridiculous amount of unnecessarily hateful opinions.
Indian cinema depicts the community in a small margin of its movies, but all I notice is that 85% of these characters are stereotypical, ridiculed and comical, or treated terribly. I don’t see why it’s so difficult to depict a homosexual relationship normally. Finally, in 2019, they came out with Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga and it didn't seem to be the terrible mess that bollywood usually comes out with. There’s Dostana, Kapoor and Sons, and a couple of other films that have done a reasonable job in portraying queer characters. Celebrities and Social media have played a major part in destigmatizing and accepting the queer. But even today, when you look at people at pride, half of them wear masks in the parade and this is even before the pre-pandemic era. This is because if your family sees you at a pride parade, baby are you dead. Jeez, what is it with these people and their bad vibes? My cousin almost spat in my face when I tried to talk to her about homosexuality, so kudos to her. Furthermore, kudos to the person I spoke to later who asked me to “get over it”. So yay! Society rocks doesn’t it? (Totally not referring to the rock in rock bottom)
I can give you an entire list of incredible people who are part of the LGBTQ+ community. But listen, there’s Dutee Chand(sprinter), even though she keeps clarifying that she doesn’t want to go by labels, the media won’t let go of the fact that she’s gay. I get that it’s a way to destigmatize homosexuality, but on the other hand, you’ve also got to respect what she’s saying. Gauri Sawant and Laxmi Narayan have some amazing TedTalks and Speeches on youtube that I will totally recommend to anyone because they are such amazing idols. Both of them are transgender activists who spread awareness and educate our narrow minded society *cue applause*. Finally I have some role models. Finally, *looks up and thanks god*.
You’re probably wondering where I’m going with this. My point is Pride Parades should be a regular annual event conducted in every major city in India. I know it’s there but I mean, do it grandly and flambously. This way we’ll be spreading awareness and hopefully, it’ll become something that we actually take pride in. No more hush hush about being gay or trans. Openly educating people, providing resources for LGBTQ+ NGOs, making hormone therapy and other treatments available- anything that is needed must be made easily available. And Parades are the best way to kick it off. Schools should provide information, workplaces should offer resources, you get where I’m going with this. Take pride in who you are, Biatches!
Xoxo
Raghavi
(a rant from someone who is definitely Not straight)