Glad and shy to be gay in India

Glad to be gay (but a bit shy about it)

Jul 3rd 2008 | DELHI
From The Economist print edition

Where Victorian values and repressive laws still hold
EPAOut of the closet, at least

THERE were no half-naked dancers, pink floats, or sailor boys locked in clinches; but India’s gay-pride parade was ground-breaking enough without them. Several hundred men and women, waving rainbow flags, danced, stamped and sang their way through the city centres of Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata (Calcutta) on June 29th—the first such national event in this conservative country. The parade was lent a uniquely Indian flavour by flamboyant cross-dressing hijras, known as eunuchs, although many modern hijras are gay men who feel alienated by mainstream society. Though hijras, once trusted courtiers of the Mughal emperors, have a well-established identity in India, gay men and women do not; indeed the practice of homosexuality is illegal, punishable with ten years’ imprisonment.

Many of those who paraded under heavy monsoon clouds in Delhi said one of their main motives was to campaign for the repeal of that law, Section 377 of India’s penal code, which deems homosexuality an “unnatural sexual offence” alongside bestiality. They say the section, drawn up 150 years ago by the British, is today routinely used by the police to harass and blackmail homosexuals, even if few are arrested. Delhi’s High Court is currently weighing a petition against Section 377 brought by an umbrella group of Indian NGOs. “I feel we’re living under the shadow of the Victorians,” shuddered one young man, as beside him a group of hijras in hot pink saris broke into Bollywood-style pelvic thrusts. He might have added that he was also living under the shadow of his mother, who, he feared, would soon start introducing him to suitable girls. “I suppose then I will have to come out.”

 

Despite a burgeoning gay scene in India’s big cities, many Indian homosexuals worry more about exposure to their families and colleagues than about the law. “My brother knows; my mother doesn’t,” says Pankash, a 23-year-old year-old student who likes to be known as Tina when he goes on dates dressed as his glamorous alter ego. Though he was not incognito on Sunday, many of his fellow paraders were. Waving placards with slogans such as “Gay and loving it”, many still wore paper masks, lest they were “outed” on television.