Masks and protests mark India’s gay pride parades

For the first time this year, gay pride was celebrated in four Indian cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata. The parades were only little celebration however. In true style of their origins where gay New Yorkers marched to protest the Stonewall riots, they were mostly protestations of the anti-sodomy law under section 377 of the Indian penal code.

Pride was coined to imbue pride in people of alternative sexuality that used to be associated with shame and guilt. And the annual pride parades are a mark of celebration of the differences and diversity in sexuality in the human race. Sadly, while pride parades in the West are largely celebratory with a lot of music, dance, colour and skin, in India we’re still eons back in terms of sexual freedom.

And this is why most participants of the pride parades wore masks in order to protect their identity from family and friends. While it is heartening to see the numbers that came out to participate in the parades, it is sad that many of them chose to hide behind masks. Indian society is hardly tolerant to queer people.

The mark of a civilization is the way it treats its minorities. On that count, it is disappointing that India was a civilization 200 years back when all ways of life were tolerated, but is no longer so. Indian law still holds on to a 150-year old British law that punishes people indulging in “carnal intercourse against the order of nature”. Strangely, this includes any sexual act except the missionary position, including oral and anal sex amongst heterosexuals. Fortunately, this law has hardly ever been used. But it is still a matter of national shame that such a law exists.

With that in mind, it is sublime that Mumbai chose to have its parade on August 16th, a day after India’s independence day conveying the message that a portion of India’s population is still not independent of the British because of our penal code holding on to a colonial law that discriminates against lgbt (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered) people. While Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore had their parades on July 29th in commemoration of New York’s Stonewall riots, Mumbai chose August 16th and marched from August Kranti Maidan where Mahatma Gandhi started the freedom struggle.

This is doubly significant because the Delhi High court is currently debating on the constitutionality of this law. While India’s Health Ministry headed by Anbumani Ramadoss has put his weight behind the LGBT groups supporting the removal of Section 377 from the IPC, India’s Home Ministry headed by Shivraj Patil counters that alternative sexuality is dangerous and not conducive to Indian culture. To think so when a entire chapter of the Kamasutra is devoted to homosexuality is just ignorance.

Congratulations to Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore for holding pride parades this year. And here’s hoping that this is now an annual affair in India with more cities chipping in and will soon turn celebratory and sans masks.