LGBTQIA community sees hope rainbow in state

AHMEDABAD: Dinesh Sutaria (name changed), 24, a resident of Maninagar, learnt of his sexual orientation when he was 16. Initially low on confidence, it took him three years to come to terms with his sexuality, and be confident about the way he is.
Belonging to LGBTQIA (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer Intersex Asexual) community is not easy for most, thanks to widespread discrimination, and misconceptions about sexual minorities.
Gujarati families, however, have proved to be more open minded about their sexual orientations than families in other states.
While Bollywood is replete with stories about acceptance towards LGBTQIA, families in Ahmedabad, too, have opened up toward accepting their queer family members.
“First I had to be fine with it. I had committed no crime, I was simply born that way, even though I was different from the rest,” said Sutaria.
“ I told my mother and she gave no reaction for a few minutes. In the next instant she accepted my orientation. She told me to talk to her whenever I felt like discussing things,” Sutaria added.
“The confidence her words gave me was tremendous. Eventually, I began talking about it with my friends too, and even my sister knows,” Sutaria said.
The story appears similar for not one, but several families in the city according to findings of a study by India’s first gay marriage bureau. While only 2% of families in India have accepted the sexuality of their children and their life partners, around 11% families of Gujarat have done so, the study claims.
“The acceptance ratio is even higher in Ahmedabad at 13%,” said Urvi Shah, CEO of the bureau. Shah, 23, is a postgraduate in development studies from Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI), Gandhinagar.
“We’ve seen at least 15 cases, where homosexuals have been accepted by their families, and it is an important factor in their confidence levels,” Shah said, adding, “Most of them are depressed often because they can’t talk openly and constantly remain under fear.”
Acceptance by his family changed the way Navsari resident Pratham Mehta led his life.
“I learned about it after having read an article about Manvendrasinh Gohil’s coming out, as soon as I started college,” said Mehta.
“ My mother’s acceptance helped me forget my fears,” he said.
“When I learned about my sexual orientation, I read about it and also about how South Asians dealt with letting their families know,” said city-based consultant Dhaval Shah. “Initially, my parents were quite upset. It took them around two years to come to terms with my sexuality,” Shah said, adding, “I am so happy that now they themselves are advocating our acceptance and counselling other parents too.”