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Glad to be gay (but a bit shy about it)
03 July 2008-
India- THERE were no half-naked dancers, pink floats, or sailor boys locked in
clinches; but India’s gay-pride parade was ground-breaking enough without them.
Several hundred men and women, waving rainbow flags, danced, stamped and sang
their way through the city centres of Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata (Calcutta) on
June 29th—the first such national event in this conservative country.
The
parade was lent a uniquely Indian flavour by flamboyant cross-dressing
hijras, known as eunuchs, although
many modern hijras are gay men
who feel alienated by mainstream society. Though
hijras, once trusted courtiers of the Mughal emperors, have a
well-established identity in India, gay men and women do not; indeed the
practice of homosexuality is illegal, punishable with ten years’ imprisonment.
Many of those who
paraded under heavy monsoon clouds in Delhi said one of their main motives was
to campaign for the repeal of that law, Section 377 of India’s penal code, which
deems homosexuality an “unnatural sexual offence” alongside bestiality. They say
the section, drawn up 150 years ago by the British, is today routinely used by
the police to harass and blackmail homosexuals, even if few are arrested.
Delhi’s High
Court is currently weighing a petition against Section 377 brought by an
umbrella group of Indian NGOs. “I feel we’re living under the shadow of the
Victorians,” shuddered one young man, as beside him a group of
hijras in hot pink saris broke into Bollywood-style pelvic
thrusts. He might have added that he was also living under the shadow of his
mother, who, he feared, would soon start introducing him to suitable girls. “I
suppose then I will have to come out."
Despite a
burgeoning gay scene in India’s big cities, many Indian homosexuals worry more
about exposure to their families and colleagues than about the law. “My brother
knows; my mother doesn’t,” says Pankash, a 23-year-old year-old student who
likes to be known as Tina when he goes on dates dressed as his glamorous alter
ego.
Though he was not
incognito on Sunday, many of his fellow paraders were. Waving placards with
slogans such as “Gay and loving it”, many still wore paper masks, lest they were
“outed” on television. |
