‘Post the Sec 377 verdict, the real fight has begun’

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high,” this beautifully written line from Rabindranath Tagore’s poem, Where The Mind Is Without Fear, best describes what we witnessed at the first LGBTQ+ pride march in Pune after the Section 377 verdict — and the first of its kind in Pimpri-Chinchwad area — on Sunday.
The march saw as many as 40 members from the community, as well as their allies, walk 1.5 km, starting from Ravet, to celebrate the Supreme Court verdict and also to fight the persisting prejudice against the community.
This time around though, not only were their heads held high and their minds without fear, but several members chose to go unmasked for the very first time, while many newcomers marched alongside with pride.

Why Pimpri-Chinchwad?

Forty might sound like a small number of people for a pride march, but since it was organised in the outskirts of the city, this was a good start, feels one of the organisers Bindumadhav Khire. “When we organised the gay pride parade for the first time in Pune eight years ago, we started with seven people. This is our first pride march in the Pimpri-Chinchwad area and this turnout is a good start for us,” says Bindu, who is also planning to take pride marches to the smaller towns of Maharashtra next.
“Post the Sec 377 verdict, the real fight has begun: to educate people, eradicate misconceptions, and to spread awareness about equality in smaller towns, so that more people from the rural area will have the courage to come out of the closet,” explains Bindu, adding that the suicide rate among the LGBTQ people in rural areas is alarming, as many are forced to get married by family and society without their consent. “Hence, a pride march in Pimpri-Chinchwad is an encouraging start,” he says.

‘The real fight for equality starts now’

“We are not entitled to apply for home loans together with our partners. We don’t have any legal rights in a relationship. And that is a problem. We want to start a family too, we want to adopt... Is this too much to ask for in the so-called largest democracy,” asks theatre artiste and actor Parikshit Shete, who joined the pride parade from Mumbai.
“For years, we were treated like dirt by society. At the pride parades, we can celebrate our existence and moreover, celebrate our imperfections. Look at us – we are queer and here! We are trans, bisexual, gay, lesbian and in-between. We are whoever we want to be. At the end of the day, we are all humans and the pride march celebrates just that. In God’s eyes we are all equals. We don’t want any sympathy from people, or the government, which is our representative. We demand equality and non-discrimination,” says transgender rights activist Sonali Dalvi.
‘We can celebrate our relationships out in the open now’

Some like labels and some don’t. Nevertheless, one should never stop celebrating themselves.
Dipankar Banerjee, an activist who works in rural areas, says, “Depending on my mood, I choose who I want to identified as. Labels or no labels, one must celebrate one’s life. I wear kajal, and sometimes I put on makeup and walk like I’m on a runway. People do look at me and some even pass comments, but that doesn’t mean that I should stop living my life. I work with an NGO in a rural area and 90 per cent of the people who pass judgments on me don’t know what my work is. They are judging me based on my looks. It speaks more about them than me.”
IT person Rajesh Tiwary, who came out to his parents recently, tells us that now it will be easier to find partners as there is more awareness around. “Thanks to the pride march, we can now celebrate our relationships out in the open. Before the Sec 377 verdict, there was a fear. Most of us hid our relationships, at least now we can celebrate them – while fighting for our rights, of course. It is a very exciting time to be in India. I used to read stories about Harvey Milk and gay rights activists in the West, and now I know how it feels to be part of a movement that demands love and equality.”