{"id":14175,"date":"2018-07-02T09:30:39","date_gmt":"2018-07-02T04:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak?p=14175"},"modified":"2018-07-03T16:15:06","modified_gmt":"2018-07-03T10:45:06","slug":"cant-we-anticipate-stonewall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/cant-we-anticipate-stonewall\/","title":{"rendered":"Can’t We Anticipate Stonewall?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Till the early part of 2008, my friends and I were clueless about homosexuality. Transgender people, chiefly transwomen, were not beyond our ken, but gay, lesbian, and bisexual were rather alien concepts. It was the Dharma Production\u2019s Dostana\u00a0<\/em>that caused a stir amongst us for the first time. Despite the film\u2019s subtext, which is about a space where being queer is as \u201cnormal\u201d as eating, drinking, and sleeping, the film, undoubtedly, failed to create a lasting impression on the inhabitants of the small town where I was born and brought up. Nor was it a serious or sensitive movie on gay relationships.<\/p>\n

Sex, for many, is not a convenient topic to start a conversation with one\u2019s parents. Discussions about sex are hush-hush and talking about sex and sexuality in the public space is often considered dirty. When somebody argues in favour of sex, it makes people\u2019s blood boil. Anyone who deviates from so-called \u201cnormative behaviour\u201d is scorned. Because of the misrepresentation of the LGBTQI community in the media, most people end up confusing sexuality with gender. Sexuality was ignored in the syllabus in the institution in which I studied. Homosexuality made its entry only in the Literature class when we were taught Shakespeare\u2019s love sonnets and Christopher Marlowe\u2019s Edward II<\/em>. Ironically, for some of my friends who boasted about the subject, English Literature, that they majored in, homosexuality was something to be treated with disapproval and scepticism. A few students of English literature wrongly implemented theory in real life by queering friendship. Come on, two boys or two girls can be friends. Stop sexualising everything! Reading Sedgwick, Foucault, and Butler fails to enlighten ignorant minds. Of course, a little learning is a dangerous thing.<\/p>\n

Things have not changed much since I left my hometown four years ago. Cities are different from small towns in many ways: not many know you, nor are you monitored, and you are your own boss. After shifting to Guwahati, I became aware of\u00a0Xukia, a non-profit organization, which works with people of sexual minorities. Guwahati, the hub of the Northeast, is the centre-point of queer activism. The city welcomed the first LGBTQI pride parade in 2014.\u00a0 This year, the parade took place at\u00a0Dighalipukhuri in Guwahati on February 11. The effervescent people \u2013supporters and activists \u2013 came out to celebrate \u201cqueerness\u201d and to raise their voices against draconian laws. The colourful dresses, the beats of the drums, the rainbow flags, the banners, and the impatient balloons that were struggling against the grip of the holders\u2019 hands to paint the sky violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red coalesced into a vibrant space for queer as well as non-queer individuals. In spite of having different social, economic, and cultural backgrounds, what united everyone was a common, infallible purpose.\u00a0 Pride parades are like a family gathering where you feel that everybody is born from the same mother. Speaking of mothers, queerness is inborn. It cannot be erased by offerings before thousands of Indian gods and goddesses.<\/p>\n

Most of us are familiar with the Stonewall riots. The Stonewall inn was the cradle of the queer liberation movement and the advancements in gay and transgender rights would not have been possible if the seeds of the queer liberation movement had not been sowed.Our country is still under the tutelage of homophobia.Can\u2019t we make our pride parades more visible? Is Delhi the only place where the genesis of any revolution should happen? Why can\u2019t we have an Indian version of Stonewall in other cities and small towns?[1]<\/a>There was a dearth of people in the recent pride parade in Guwahati. Queer awareness has not touched every nook and cranny not only of Assam but also of the rest of India. My queer brothers and sisters have a long way to go. Most people in semi-urban and rural regions are not aware of the fact that homosexuality is an orientation just as heterosexuality is one. Some queer people not only prefer to not come out of the closet, but they also do not raise their voice when it is demanded by the situation. Nor do they come to attend the pride parades. They are afraid of being exposed in front of people who have undergone turbulent experiences. Of course, it is one\u2019s individual choice to not attend the pride parades. Not only is one scared of exclusion but also of people\u2019s disavowal of homosexuality.Yet, one can have one\u2019s say at the pride parade and it may not involve coming out of the closet publicly. If one decides to attend and show support, it will, at least, disseminate information about queer existence. It may turn one\u2019s life upside down \u2013 one maybe criticised for supporting homosexuality publicly or banished from one\u2019s social circle. Yet, at the end of the day one will be remembered for the choices one makes to create change in the world that we live in. Though Rome was not built in a day, didn’t thousands and thousands of workers work day and night from the very first day? If your one step \u2013 addressed to everyone irrespective of caste, class, gender, religion,\u00a0 and sexuality \u2013\u00a0\u00a0is a giant leap for marginalised and oppressed people, Stonewall will not be far behind.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a>By Indian version of Stonewall, I mean a mass mobilisation, with more protests and slogans.<\/p>\n

Cover Image: The Economic Times<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If your one step \u2013 addressed to everyone irrespective of caste, class, gender, religion,\u00a0 and sexuality \u2013\u00a0\u00a0is a giant leap for marginalised and oppressed people, Stonewall will not be far behind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":266,"featured_media":14186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,1648,8],"tags":[160,1681,1651,1274,1660,1661,1662,1354,1659],"class_list":{"0":"post-14175","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-categories","8":"category-power-and-sexuality","9":"category-voices","10":"tag-india","11":"tag-lgbt-movement","12":"tag-lgbt-pride","13":"tag-lgbtq","14":"tag-mass-mobilisation","15":"tag-mass-movement","16":"tag-mass-queer-movement","17":"tag-queer-pride","18":"tag-stonewall"},"menu_order":740,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/266"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14175"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14290,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14175\/revisions\/14290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}