On 28th
June, 1969, Stonewall Inn in New York was raided by the police. The raid was part
of many such instances where queer people were rounded up and crossdressing men
were arrested. The raid on Stonewall Inn invoked protests from the queer
community and quickly turned violent. Widespread protests lasted for a couple
of days and spread to other cities in the US. The following year on the first
anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, first Gay Pride marches were organized simultaneously
in many US cities. The marches became a civil movement for recognition of gay
rights in America. In the years following the first Gay Pride march, the
movement spread to other countries.
India saw its first
Gay Pride in 1999, in Kolkata. The movement however did not get much traction.
It was only in 2008, that the first coordinated pride marches were held in many
Indian cities. The colonial hangover on the Indian legal system meant that homosexuality
was illegal and punishable under the Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. Various
gay rights groups were fighting a long court battle to decriminalize homosexuality.
The movement won a brief victory in 2009, when Delhi High Court partially decriminalized
Section 377. The decision was however overturned
by the Supreme Court in 2013 and review pleas were dismissed. The Supreme
Court finally decriminalized homosexuality in 2018 after a long drawn legal battle
between gay activist groups, the government and the religious bodies.
Since the Supreme
Court decriminalized homosexuality, one of the prime issues of the Gay Pride
has been addressed. The battle of acceptance may not have been won, but the
legal battle, for sure, has ended.
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Hetro Capitalist Pollution |
Meanwhile a strange
thing happened. The gay rights movement, which was fighting for their rights,
got highjacked. As the pride marches started getting media attention, the
movement was infiltrated by the Left. The voices of gay rights were heard less
and less as the chorus of political voices reached their crescendo. The pride
marches became yet another platform for political sloganeering. This is not
surprising since the pride marches in the West too have met a similar fate. Pro
Hong Kong activists were thrown out of the Montreal Parade, while Pro China
group was allowed to march along as they sang the Chinese national anthem.
Since much of the
outrage material on ‘social justice’ in India comes from the US, the political
sloganeering at pride marches were no exception. Since the last few years,
slogans against a particular political party and random Amercian outrage slogans
have held sway. Azadi slogans became common and so did the hatred for
Modi/BJP/RSS.
But is it wrong to
have a political opinion? Why is political sloganeering during Gay Pride wrong?
Well, neither is having an opinion wrong, nor is sloganeering. In fact, it is a
right. However, such acts of mixing unrelated politics with a focused movement
leads to dilution of the movement itself. The pride marches in India are anyway
poorly
attended. This year’s attendance in Delhi was just about 1,000. In a city
with a population of almost 19 million only a paltry 1,000 people attended the
march. The pride march does not resonate with a large section of the society,
including queer people. If such a poorly attended march then becomes a platform
for politics, it will only discourage people from participating.
Another reason why
the current political colour of Gay Pride is a deep red, is because it has been
appropriated by the far Left. The anti Modi/BJP/RSS slogans, sprinkled with a generous
amount of ‘Azadi’ makes one feel as if they are participating in the monthly
parade at JNU or Jadhavpur University. The irony is that the far Left, which claims
to be the best friend of queer people, is sawing the branch on which it is
sitting.
To understand this
better, let us go back to the final days of the hearing on Section 377 in the
Supreme Court. Other than the government of India, there were sundry religious
groups who petitioned the Supreme Court to not decriminalize homosexuality. Muslim
organisations like All India Muslim Personal Law Board, Jamat-e-Islami Hind
pleaded the government to save
Section 377. Christian
organisations pleaded in the Supreme Court for nearly two hours on the last
day of the hearing in the case, to stop decriminalization of homosexuality.
On the other hand,
RSS, the so called mother of BJP and the entire ‘Hindutva’ movement, went for a
reset in its outlook. The BJP as the ruling party in the Union government did
not oppose the decriminalization of homosexuality. Had the ‘saffron’ party and
Modi set up road blocks, the judgement would have been delayed further. The RSS
said, that they don’t support homosexuality, but neither
do they want it criminalized. Mohan Bhagwat, the chief of RSS said, ‘the
LGBTQ community is very much part of the society and they should not be isolated’.
The RSS is also of the view that though same sex marriage is something they do
not support at the moment, they are however open to a discussion in the future.
For an organization like
RSS to openly accept the queer community and staying open to a discussion on
something like same sex marriage is a huge climb down. Given the clout of RSS
and its influence on the BJP, the queer community should actually make friends
with RSS to further their demands. The Muslim and Christian groups are not
going to support their cause given the deep theological connection of Islam and
Christianity with homophobia.
But instead of
leveraging the recent climb down of RSS on gay issues, the far Left infiltrated
Gay Pride is raising slogans against the only people/group that supports them. This
is primarily because not only has the Gay Pride being appropriated by the far
Left, it has also become elitist. Like around the world, the elites do not care
much about the real issues, but care more about abstract nonsense like ‘Hetro
Capitalist Pollution’.
If there is any real gay
movement left, it should exclude the political sloganeering and random captions
from their activism and work with people and groups who can give them a real
chance to bring a change. The Azadi and hateful political slogans may belong in
the campus of JNU and Jadhavpur University, but definitely not in a serious
rights movement.