Mumbai Queer Azadi Pride 2009 - The Right to be Happy

In a previous comment on another thread, I wrote, “I, for one, am finding out that when it comes to talking about Sex, Indians - whether straight or gay, are really uncomfortable.

So the best we can do is either be silent about it, or gag somebody who wants to talk about it.

Somewhere being Gay, is so strongly associated with the sexual-factor, (all those "unimaginable" sexual acts that make most people uncomfortable), that for us Indians today, the mere mention of gay-Identity seems to be talk about anal-sex!

If I can convince my neighbours, city and nation: the society in general to stop forcing me into a straight marriage (and spoil a girl’s life), if I can convince my people to accept my Boy-Friend (when I have one), I would be happy!

I am sure that is not too much to ask for!”

I participated in the Mumbai Queer Azadi Pride March on Sunday. Queer has traditionally been used as a derogatory term for people of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transsexual identity. We have tried to take up that very word ‘Queer’ to encompass the vast spectrum of Alternate Sexuality.

As human beings, we all yearn for happiness.

In these times, having the Article 377 of Indian Penal code revised to decriminalize homosexuality, has given further impetus to the Society’s pursuit to legitimize happiness for everyone, of every creed and hue.

So even though all the Baba Ramdev’s of this decade, the so-called custodians of Indian Culture, have been hell-bent to force their brand of Happiness as the only way to achieve Happiness, we people with alternate Sexual-Identities have been given the right by the Delhi High Court to be happy Constitutionally.

(Now there is a petition against Homosexuality in the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court’s judgement decriminalizing Homosexuality. Nobody else but our own Baba Ramdev has filed this case!)

We, Gays, are not a Proselytizing breed. We are what we are. I, for one, had sexual attraction for the same sex even before I entered primary school. It was in-bred, perhaps remnants of Karma, as Hindus believe from a previous life. It was destined, which no Baba Ramdev can rectify.            

Denying us our Happiness is against Nature!

When the Priests, Maulanas, and Pundits speak against homosexuals they scar the psyche of countless young men and women who are growing up with gay feelings! Do we want to have a section of tomorrow’s generation going against their natural feelings and ending up on the Psychiatrist couch someday?

All we are asking for is the right to love, and not feel guilty or criminal about it. All we are asking for is to make love with our partners and not be penalized for it. All we are asking is to be given the right to live as Nature made us!

That surely is not too much to ask!

“If it is Love, God wouldn’t mind; there is enough Hate in this world”