This essay won 'The Best Article Written in English Language' at a local fest and I was awarded $50 for it.
If a man physically expresses his love to another man in the world's biggest democracy, he is a felon, a criminal who can be imprisoned with sentence of more than ten years. India leans, when it comes to the stance on gay rights, to the kind of nations like Pakistan, Iran etc, very different to what a democracy should be.
The big questions are "Am I going to be ever sexually active? Who should I trust in this process? Will the people accept me?" And there is another set of horrid, appalling questions that surrounds the life of homosexuals.
How hard did the father hit when he saw his muscular son strutting in heels? How far did the mother's scream go when she saw her daughter kissing another girl? Swearing it on Gita, Bible etc to never have intercourse again with people of same sex is the easiest punishment that they get, not to talk of the worst given.
It is possible to escape the moral wrong as the fallacies about homosexuality, that are deep embedded in the soil here are hollow but how can one run away from things that are considered legal wrong? The reinstating of Section 377 by the apex court which re-criminalized all forms of sexual activities other than "natural" has attacked the principles of our founding- fathers who have fought for equality.
The capacious amount of tragedies which involved homosexuals including hate, rape threats, extortion is the result of the legal irresponsibility of the Supreme Court, their false notion of seeing the homosexual community as 'miniscule fraction.' Even if we consider their assumption correct that 1 to 5% of the Indian's boasting population of a billion is correct (an underestimated data), 10 to 50 million people can't be neglected.
It's no lie that the present, central, majoritarian government, whether intentionally or unintentionally, has fearlessly initiated a campaign where minority is seen contemptible, and when muddled with the religious backlash, gay marriage in our country seems like a distant dream. It even angers me more that the present government might not stop the festering of forest of hatred against homosexuals and even going to the length of sacrificing them for their own political interests.
So, it's inconsiderate to ask the gay community to practice celibacy when the beds of their heterosexual mates are perfectly, lustfully creaking. It is high time for our country to acknowledge India's large gay community still in their closet, fearful and oblivious if their hands might touch someone's skin. It is high time that we teach values: compassion and kindness; tolerance for things that we have no real standing in; empathy for people waiting to see their 'rainbow' sprouting.
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Stories from A Troubled Boy
Non-Fiction..and I was different. "He is weird," said my seniors, tone redolent with mockery. And nicknames began. I have now lost count of the names. There are many, and it reached my home. My single mother was worried about who I was going to be. Though...
