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Saturday, August 15, 2009
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Freedom from prejudice
Freedom from prejudice | Nitin Karani
‘After section 377 was struck down, the battle has become more real’
http://www.livemint.com/2009/08/14205731/Freedom-from-prejudice--Nitin.html?h=B
Sanjukta Sharma
Mumbai
In 1995, his life changed and 24-year-old Nitin Karani decided to tell his parents he was gay. Bombay Dost, the magazine, and The Humsafar Trust, its parent organization, both founded by Ashok Row Kavi, had organized a three-day conference on homosexuality and HIV/AIDS in Mumbai. Through a friend, Karani got the opportunity to work as a volunteer there.
Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi: Gandhi’s grace and ahimsa in the face of hatred are inspirational. Abhijit Bhatlekar / Mint
Until then, he would hide copies of Bombay Dost from his family. He would look for inspiration from gay men featured in American television shows such as The Oprah Winfrey Show and ThePhil Donahue Show, or in the pages of Michelangelo Signorile’s Queer in America, which is a bible for Karani.
During that conference, he met Kavi and his comrades, who were mostly young men who had found a new life, and who called their charismatic and articulate leader “amma” (“He is still called that,” Karani says). The circle of support that Kavi had already garnered for Bombay Dost was a revolution in itself in the 1980s and 1990s, and for young men such as Karani, it was liberating. “Those were the best three days of my life,” says Karani, now one of the key members of The Humsafar Trust, and as Kavi says, “my deputy”.
Karani is involved in the overall functioning of Humsafar. Their office in Kalina, an eastern suburb of Mumbai, is a drop-in centre, reference library and medical clinic, possibly the only place in Asia where an NGO working for issues of Men who have Sex with Men (MSM, a World Health Organization term) is on the premises of a government-run building, in this case the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
Karani, whose day job is that of a financial editor in a leading corporate house, was instrumental in the makeover of Bombay Dost—relaunched as a glossy cultural and queer lifestyle magazine in April after getting funding from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The magazine, which is available at newspaper stalls for Rs150, features films with queer themes, profiles of gay men, reviews and lifestyle features. “The relaunched Bombay Dost reflects what we are today. When I was young, it was a voice for Men who have Sex with Men. Today, thankfully, the realities are different, at least among English-speaking, educated people.”
According to Karani, among the catalysts for greater acceptance of MSM in the country are Manvendra Singh Gohil, the only son of the erstwhile maharaja of Rajpipla, who was disinherited by his parents after he went public with the fact that he was gay; the success of the film Dostana; and Sean Penn’s portrayal of Harvey Milk in the Oscar-nominated movie Milk.
Bolstered by the Delhi high court’s recent verdict on section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, under which consensual “unnatural” sexual acts of adults, even in private, were treated as a criminal offence, homosexuality has become a topic of public and media debate. On the day the verdict was announced (2 July), Karani’s telephone wouldn’t stop ringing.
In his south Mumbai office, Karani spoke to many cousins and relatives who had never openly accepted his sexuality. Volunteers of The Humsafar Trust marched on to the road, doused in gulal. But Karani says it will take years for the impact to be felt. “Historically, it is important, but as far as acceptance is concerned, this is the first step. After section 377 was struck down, the battle has become more real.”
Karani believes that because homosexuality is now legally acceptable and more public, opposition is likely to be more openly aggressive. “We will be able to gauge some reactions on the annual Queer Azadi March on 16 August.”
Karani is the only child of his parents—his father was a tax consultant and his mother has always been a housewife—and he shares a flat with them in Khar, a Mumbai suburb. “After coming in touch with Humsafar Trust, I decided to make my coming-out as public as possible. Somebody had to do it. But before that I had to tell my parents. They were shattered and thought I was abnormal, but they have been supportive ever since.”
Karani is one of the few gay men in India who have “come out” through newspaper interviews and on TV several times. “It is important to say ‘I am gay’”—that’s the first thing he tells young men who walk into the Humsafar office. “We don’t have many gay icons in India, as in the West, so the need to be public is more important.”
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Friday, August 14, 2009
Why Asia's Gays are Starting to Win Acceptance
Monday, Aug. 24, 2009
Why Asia's Gays are Starting to Win Acceptance
By Jyoti Thottam / Kathmandu
Sunil Babu Pant is a schoolteacher's son who grew up in the rough green mountains of central Nepal. The youngest of six children, indulged by his family, Pant remembers feeling attracted to other boys. But he wore that knowledge lightly, with the innocence of a sheltered child. Boys and girls played separately; Pant thought that his friends must feel just as he did. "It didn't appear as a problem to me growing up in the countryside," he says. "Even though I knew about myself, I couldn't define it."
By 28, Pant had a word for what he felt, and in 2000 he moved to Kathmandu, Nepal's capital, to find other gay people and some sense of belonging. What he discovered horrified him. After dark, a small underground subculture of gay men and women would meet each other in a few of the city's parks and ancient courtyards, gatherings that took place under a constant threat of violence by the police. A law against "unnatural sexual conduct" was often used as a pretext for harassment, he says. "It was such an unseen, unspoken tragedy that was going on every day." (See pictures of the gay rights movement.)
Pant could have chosen to live as other gays do in Asia's conservative societies, hiding his sexuality behind a sham marriage while leading a dangerous double life. Instead, he decided to come out and to work against discrimination. "There was a choice to make," he says, "whether you feel threatened and live your life with misery, or you live with courage." In 2001, Pant and a few friends organized the Blue Diamond Society — named after the Diamond Sutra, a well-known translation of Buddhist teachings emphasizing compassion — to distribute information about HIV. The group later began documenting human-rights abuses against gay people, and its members sued to overturn Nepal's law criminalizing homosexuality. In December 2007, Nepal's Supreme Court ruled in their favor. Four months later, Pant, who was the main petitioner in the case, became South Asia's first openly gay member of parliament. By the end of 2008, the Supreme Court issued its full judgment, which not only nullified the old law but also established a "third gender" category for government documents. A newly formed government advisory committee is studying the possibility of legalizing gay marriage. In less than a decade, Nepal, a poor and devout Hindu kingdom, had become what the Indian writer and gay activist C.K. Meena calls "a gaytopia."
Rights and Recognition Nepal's transformation could only have happened in the first decade of the 21st century — and similar changes are taking place elsewhere in Asia as sweeping economic and social forces erode long-held prejudices. In India, the Delhi High Court recently struck down as unconstitutional a 149-year-old law criminalizing homosexuality, in a judgment so eloquent in its support of gay people's right to dignity that some wept in the courtroom as the last pages were read. In China this summer, Beijing and Shanghai hosted gay and lesbian festivals with little official interference — an achievement in a country where mass gatherings of any kind are tightly controlled. Tolerance isn't measured by any official statistic, but it's there in many forms — gay characters on television and in films, openly gay celebrities and gay public gatherings. Manila held Asia's first gay-pride parade in 1994; this year there were similar festivals in a dozen other Asian cities. "If nothing else, people aren't denying the existence of homosexuality anymore," says Jeffrey O'Malley, the director of the HIV group for the United Nations Development Program in New York City. "That's a huge difference from 20 years ago."
The rising visibility of gay people in the region is just one of many social changes that have been accelerated by travel, urbanization, education, democratization and, most of all, the explosion of information across every imaginable medium. This isn't simply Westernization — the old argument that homosexuality is yet another crass cultural import from the West has been all but discarded. But the Asian social institutions and beliefs that often stood in the way of tolerance — religious conservatism, intense emphasis on marriage and having children, cultural taboos against openly discussing sexuality — are weakening. In some parts of Asia, space is opening up for homosexuals in society. "The debate about sexuality is in the realm of the constitution, of democracy, equality and human rights," says Gautam Bhan, a gay activist in New Delhi. "The terrain of the debate has shifted."
Watch a gay marriage wedding video.
The Road Less Traveled Pant's journey from rural Nepal to Kathmandu's parliament — with detours through a college campus in Belarus and the nightclubs of Tokyo — reveals how one gay man and his community came to terms. By leaving Nepal as a young college graduate, he experienced for the first time both homophobia and acceptance. In 1992, he went to Belarusian State Polytechnic Academy in Minsk to get his master's degree in computer science. The newly independent country, which had been part of the Soviet Union, welcomed students from the developing world, but he arrived at a time of growing hostility toward homosexuals — a banner at the college's medical clinic warned "Beware of Gays." He spent five years hiding who he was. "I understood that my sexuality could be a problem to the authorities and I could be deported," he says.
After completing his degree, Pant decided to take a trip to Japan as a volunteer for an environmental group. In Tokyo, what was originally scheduled to be a two-week sojourn stretched to three months as he immersed himself in one of Asia's most established gay subcultures. Homosexuality has a long history in Japan, with allusions to it documented as far back as the 11th century Tale of Genji. Attitudes changed with the growing influence of Christianity in the 1800s, but since the 1880s Japan has not had laws punishing homosexuality like those passed throughout the British colonies during the same period.
This quiet tolerance doesn't include legal rights or full social acceptance, but it does allow Japanese gays and lesbians a limited freedom. Tokyo has long had its own Chelsea in Shinjuku 2-chome, a neighborhood full of shops, nightclubs and bookstores catering to gay people. That's where Pant read about the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City's Greenwich Village, an uprising against police harassment that many consider the beginning of the gay-rights movement. In Tokyo, Pant also discovered ancient Hindu texts celebrating same-sex love. When he returned to Nepal, he used this knowledge to explain to his parents that homosexuality was part of Hinduism's old traditions. This made coming out to them easier. "They had some questions," he says. "But when you talk about culture, about religion, it's not something foreign, somebody telling you something from outside."
His mother's worst fear, Pant says, was that he would be a victim of violence. "She was terrified," he recalls. After the Supreme Court ruling in 2007, such incidents are rare, although his parents still get upset when his political opponents make derogatory comments. Those are among the few intrusions into his otherwise ascetic life. His longtime partner recently moved to Bangkok, so he lives with his parents and grandmother in Kathmandu, spends time with his nieces and nephews, and visits his village regularly.
In Nepal, as in the rest of the world, the fight for gay rights is closely linked to the fight against HIV and AIDS. The deadly virus was initially tagged as a "gay disease" in the West, and its early victims struggled against a blatant and sometimes violent backlash. In Asia, homophobia took a different form: denial. For years, authorities asserted that HIV couldn't be a problem because homosexuality simply didn't exist. But by the late 1990s, it was obvious that HIV/AIDS posed a serious public-health threat that would only get worse if ignorance remained official policy. It's no coincidence that Pant's Blue Diamond Society initially worked on AIDS issues. Because of a global effort by public-health authorities and governments to raise HIV/AIDS awareness, "it was where we could get funding," Pant says. (Read "Closet Case: How Intolerance Fuels Africa's AIDS Crisis.")
This support gave him a platform to organize the local gay community — as it did for pioneers in the gay-rights movement in other countries. Anjali Gopalan, an activist in New Delhi, was there at the beginning of HIV/AIDS-awareness efforts. Trained in political science and international development, she moved to New York City in 1985 at the height of the AIDS epidemic and was involved in some of the first attempts to bring information about the disease to immigrants and the poor.
The experience proved to be a personal awakening. "It makes you learn a lot about your own culture," she says from a brightly painted office in south New Delhi, "to understand discrimination, to understand equality, to learn how to respect differences." After Gopalan returned to India in 1994 to be closer to her aging parents, she started the Naz Foundation (India) Trust, one of the country's first HIV/AIDS groups. Well before India's economic boom or the push to decriminalize gay sex, the movement helped to introduce issues concerning sexual orientation and sexuality into India's public discourse. "The government itself was funding programs for men who have sex with men," she says.
Read "The Battle Over Gay Marriage."
Despite this tacit backing, activists worked in a legal gray area. Section 377 of the Indian penal code, a law passed by the British colonial administration in 1860, criminalized sodomy and was still in effect, leaving gays vulnerable to the whims of local law enforcement. Police in Lucknow, a city in north India, arrested four HIV outreach workers in 2001 under Section 377 on charges including "conspiring to commit sodomy." The incident was alarming — but ultimately it served as the catalyst for a historic gay-rights ruling. The Naz Foundation filed a public-interest lawsuit on the arrested activists' behalf and after eight years of litigation, the Delhi High Court ruled on July 2 that Section 377 violated India's constitutional principles of equality and inclusivity. It was an emotional moment, particularly for those who grew up in more conservative times. "In those days, you just kept quiet about your sexuality," says Gautam Bhan, a New Delhi urban planner and activist. He lived in the U.S. for years, watching from abroad as India slowly changed, and went back in 2004 once he decided he could live in India as an openly gay man. "I still can't believe that 377 no longer holds," he says. "My landlord sent me a note, people in my office clapped when I entered the next day. There was this sense all around that it was obvious, it was good, it was right, it was a symbol of change."
Blending In Even in authoritarian and deeply religious countries, gay people are finding ways to gather and meet each other, the first step in mobilizing for their rights. In Pakistan, where homosexuality is considered a crime by both the state and Islam, an underground social scene thrives among the élite, particularly in Karachi and Lahore. Inspired by activism in India, two women in Lahore earlier this year founded Pakistan's first gay-rights organization, whose members meet privately in affluent homes. China's authorities decriminalized homosexuality in 1997, but it is only in the last few years that gay culture has started to flourish. "The speed of change in China has been amazing," says a 37-year-old employee of a Beijing Internet company. It remains difficult to be openly gay in the workplace, says the man, who requested anonymity. But in social settings, the environment has improved dramatically, especially for young people, he says. "Some of them don't even think it's an issue." Still, there are limits. The Beijing Queer Film Festival has been held four times since 2001, and this year marked the first time that the event went off without any official interference. But Cui Zi'en, one of the organizers, said they "kept a deliberately low profile" this year by moving the festival to an outlying neighborhood. (Watch TIME's video "Gay Marriage in the Heartland.")
To further their cause, gay activists in Asia have had to adapt, as Cui did. They can't just borrow strategies honed during the U.S. civil rights movement as others have done — in countries where democracy is still a work in progress, they have to invent new ones. Instead of confrontational tactics, they work hand in hand with other activists. Pradeep Khadka, human-rights coordinator for the Blue Diamond Society, says that rather than challenging Nepalese society, his group has built alliances within the democracy movement and tried to change attitudes and policies through political persuasion. Even the language of the movement is different. Instead of gay liberation or gay pride, Khadka promotes "sexual diversity" and the protection of "sexual minorities" along with the poor, women and lower castes. "We are not very aggressive," Khadka says. "It's a very soft way of approach." He admires the pioneers of the U.S. and Europe, but doesn't consider them models. "The generation has changed from the Stonewall movement."
This might be a soft revolution, but it is a revolution all the same. Some 200 openly gay, lesbian and transgender Nepalis gathered recently in a hotel conference room to draft sample legislation protecting their rights. Pant was there, hovering in the background, but the crowd was more interested in getting answers from the two straight politicians who were attending to hear their complaints about support for gay students and delays in getting passports marked "third gender." Nepal's example is powerful enough that donors from Norway and Sweden want to help them replicate it elsewhere. That effort will begin on Aug. 18 with a meeting in Kathmandu of gay activists from all over South Asia. It's hard to say what the gay world in Asia will look like a decade from now, but in a valley in the shadow of the Himalayas, it is finding its next incarnation.
— with reporting by Jessie Jiang / Beijing, Coco Masters / Tokyo, Madhur Singh / New Delhi and Omar Waraich / Lahore
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Female spouses of MSM
Female spouses of MSM
Female spouses of men who is having sex with men (MSM) is a population group
who are hidden and their problems and concerns are seldom explored by policy
makers and researchers.
Homosexuality has been illegal in India since 1861, when British rulers
codified a law prohibiting "carnal intercourse against the order of nature
with any man, woman or animal." The law, known as Section 377 of India's
penal code, has long been viewed as an archaic holdover from colonialism by
its detractors.
In their decision, Chief Justice A. P. Shah and Justice S. Muralidhar
declared Section 377, as it pertains to consensual sex among people above
the age of 18, in violation of important parts of India's Constitution.
"Consensual sex amongst adults is legal, which includes
even gay sex and sex among the same sexes," they said.
The old law violates Article 14 of the Constitution, which guarantees all
people "equality before the law;" Article 15, which prohibits discrimination
"on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth;" and Article
21, which guarantees "protection of life and personal liberty," the judges
said.
India's society is generally unwelcoming of homosexuality except in the most
cosmopolitan circles. It is not uncommon for gay men and women to marry
heterosexuals and have families, while carrying on secret relationships with
members of the same sex.
NDTV Features editor Ms. Sutapa Deb is doing a TV story on the concerns of
female spouses of men who is having sex with men and Ms. Sutapa would like
to contact with Delhi based female spouses of MSM to be interviewed for her
documentary on MSM related issues.
If any of the members of this FORUM who are the Female spouses of MSM are
-confidentially- willing to talk to Ms. Sutapa may contact her by e-mail:
sutapa@ndtv. com
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"The Right that Dares to speak its Name"
Courtesy LGBT India
siddharth narrain <siddharth.narrain@gmail.com>
> Dear All,
>
> *
> Given the importance of the Naz Foundation decision, and despite the fact
> that it is an excellently written judgment, we recognize that a 105 pages
> can be a challenge for many people. We were therefore prompted to bring out
> an analytical primer which could serve as a guide through the intricacies
> of
> the judgment.
>
> We are happy to announce the publication of a new primer on the judgment.
> "The Right that Dares to speak its Name" has been put together by Arvind
> Narrain and Marcus Eldridge. The Primer contains a schematic guide
> highlighting the key aspects of the judgment with a commentary. It then
> examines the background and finally contains a few commentaries that came
> out after the judgment. The Primer is 140 pages and is priced at Rs. 50.
> Copies are available at ALF
>
>
> For more details and to download a copy please visit
>
>
> http://www.altlawforum.org/announcement-of-new-publication-the-right-that-dares-to-speak-its-name
>
>
> Lawrence
>
>
> Table Of Contents:
>
> Introduction
>
> Schematic Guide: Naz Foundation v. Union of India
>
> * The Law
> * The Parties
> * The Bench
> * The Rationale
> * Conclusion
> * Basis of Ruling
> * Territorial Applicability of the judgment
>
>
> Background: The Naz Judgment
>
> Outline of Arguments on behalf of Voices against 377
>
> Edited Transcripts of the final arguments before the Delhi High Court
>
> Commentaries
>
>
> * On Freedom's Avenue, Gautam Bhan
> * Reforming Macaulay, Kajal Bharadwaj
> * India: From 'perversion' to Right to Life with Dignity, Kalpana
> Kannabiran
> * Who’s Afraid of Homosexuality, Ram Jethmalani
> * Striving for Magic in the City of Words, Lawrence Liang and Siddharth
> Narrain
> * It's About All of Us , Pratap Bhanu Mehta
> * Good for All Minorities, Tarunabh Khaitan
> * Navigating the Noteworthy and the Nebulous in Naz Foundation, Vikram
> Raghavan
> * Keeping Religion out of the Gay Debate, Siddharth Bhatia
>
> *
> **
>
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Homosexuals will brave swine flu to stage mega August 16 Pride Parade
Homosexuals will brave swine flu to stage mega August 16 Pride Parade
Behind the mask, gay Mumbai is poised to out itself.
As the virus spreads, organisers of the Queer Azadi March (Gay Pride Parade), which will begin on August 16 at Kranti Maidan and travel to Chowpatty, have urged sexual minorities and sympathisers to drop inhibitions and participate in a historic parade.
The organisers say they would take precautions so that nothing unpleasant happens during the march which will take place between 3 pm and 6 pm. While 600 people participated in the parade last year, this year the organisers are expecting more than a 1,000.
Geeta Kumana of same-sex NGO Aanchal Trust said, "We will distribute masks as a precaution, but we don't think people would stay indoors."
"Having the parade is not only the motto. We will do the march and do it responsibly," said Pallav Patankar, trustee of the Humsafar Trust.
Mumbai has the biggest parade. I will be there and will wear a mask and will also advice others to wear it and participate in the parade
Celina Jaitley
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Thursday, August 13, 2009
After Decriminalization, a Gay Pride March in Mumbai
August 12, 2009, 3:27 pm
After Decriminalization, a Gay Pride March in Mumbai
By Lindsay Clinton
Adnan Abidi/Reuters Gay rights activists celebrated during a rally in New Delhi in July after the city’s highest court decriminalized homosexuality.
MUMBAI | While much of the world celebrated Gay Pride in June, Mumbai waited. The Queer Azaadi March (”azaadi” means freedom), in fact, is this Sunday, a day after the 62nd anniversary of India’s independence. The implicit association: the freedom of sexual orientation and the country’s freedom from the clutch of colonialism.
Nearly 2,000 lesbian, gay, bi- and transsexual citizens and human rights advocates are expected to gather on the August Kranti Maidan in South Mumbai. There is much to celebrate: last month the New Delhi High Court repealed Section 377 of India’s penal code, which criminalized homosexuality. However, the decision is currently being challenged, which makes the March even more important to the LGBT community.
Lindsay Clinton Pallav Patankar (foreground) and Srinivas Satya prepare signs for the march.
Only the second “pride” march in Mumbai, the act of being “out” is still a statement here.
“This is like the early pride parades in New York, when people were fighting for the right just to be present and be on the streets,” said Kabi Sherman, an organizer of this year’s march.
The gay community in Mumbai has fielded criticism here that the movement is merely a Western construct. “There is a need for the gay community to find an identity that is connected to Indian culture, said Pallav Patankar, a trustee with the Humsafar Trust, a community-based organization. “Our homosexuality is not about being Western. We’re trying to find our own path.”
The march is indeed likely to juxtapose Western symbols of homosexuality with traditional Indian motifs. Srinivas Satya, a 26-year-old gay IT-professional, originally from Chennai, will march alongside several friends. Each will don a traditional dhoti, a white cloth worn by South Indian men around the waist, paired with tight colorful tees in a spectrum of colors.
Community organizations like Gay Bombay, Salvation Star, and other LGBT-social welfare organizations will carry banners and host face-painting booths.
The program kicks off at 3 p.m. on Sunday with speeches by representatives of the LGBT community. The march will continue to Chowpatty Beach, then to Wilson College Lane, with a left onto Hughes Road. The procession will end where it began, on the Maidan, with singing and dancing.
Associated events will be held on Friday and Saturday, including ones organized by Humsafar Trust and one by LABIA (Lesbians and Bisexuals in Action) at Awaaz-e-Niswaan in Kurla West. Stop by the Azaad Bazaar exhibition in Bandra West this weekend to buy rainbow turbans, pride belts and other accessories.
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Wednesday, August 12, 2009
* Onir deals with gay sex, child abuse in 'I Am'
- Onir deals with gay sex, child abuse in 'I Am'
Mumbai, Aug 12 (PTI) Filmmaker Onir is all set to tackle sensitive issues like legalisation of gay sex, child abuse and Maoist crisis in his upcoming film 'I Am'.
Comprising five short stories, the movie is based on real life incidents and questions law and society, the director said.
"'I am' talks about identity and 'Omar' reveals the nexus between the police and male sex workers to blackmail and abuse gay men, who fear the society and law," the director told PTI.
The film, which has a budget of 1.5 crore is being made by the funds collected through social networking websites and public.
Onir, who has previously directed movies like 'My Brother Nikhil' dealing with homosexuality and AIDS and 'Sorry Bhai', created a group on Facebook to get support for the movie.
Debutante Saheel Saigal plays the protagonist in Omar.
The movie also stars Rahul Bose and Abhimanyu Singh in pivotal role
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Sunday, August 09, 2009
The power of pink
The power of pink
INDRANI RAJKHOWA BANERJEE 9 August 2009, 12:00am IST
In the backwaters of Alappuzha in Kerala, Ashim and Jojo look deep into each other’s eyes as they luxuriate in a tub of milk sprinkled with rose petals and honey dew.
The cost of the spa package: Rs 22,000. The cost of love: Priceless!
Yes, that’s what a lot of such couples are doing, spending their ‘Pink’ money like never before, especially in labels, brands and destination packages, exclusively tailored for them.
Pink money, a few decades ago, mostly meant the political donations a homosexual person made. But today’s gay individuals are being spoilt for choice by entrepreneurs, who are trying to tap ‘pink’ power. The logic: they’ve higher disposable incomes, can be marginally considered as DINK (double income, no kids) couples, and are akin to single women with cash to burn!
From ‘I Dig Chick Cups’ to strategic positioning of records of gay icons like Elton John and Madonna, from gay bars to homosexual wedding packages, ‘Pink’ power is a thriving industry in the West. “Pink Rupee is knocking at our doors and the judgment will go a long way in bringing more middle-class homosexuals out of the closet,†says Manish Sharma of Boyzone Delhi, an event management firm, which organises parties for gay couples.
In the pristine beaches of Varkala lies Kerala Konnections, a homestay run by a Spanish lady who stays there with her lesbian partner. Gavin, who spent a week there with his lover Rashid, says, “We kissed while cruising down the backwaters and soaked in the massages on the sandy beaches, all without a single stray glance or taunt.â€
In Delhi, at a swish Pan-Asian fine diner at DLF Mall, a gay night last month had many couples shell out thousands just to let their hair down in the privacy of their ilk. A staff at Polka, a nightclub in the capital, says the earnings from a “mask party†are much more than special nights for heterosexual couples.
Sanjay Malhotra of Mumbai-based Indija Pink, a travel portal dedicated to the gay community, is busy with arrangements for India’s ‘first exclusive gay group tour’. On offer is “prime luxury at a beach-front villa†in Goa. He sells about five travel packages a month to the community.
In the US, the market is estimated to be worth $660 billion in spending on ‘gay’ beverages, luxury goods, entertainment, travel, financial services, even bras for boys! In India, Absolut Vodka launched bottles in gay pride colours for a party in Delhi.
A website, which conducts gay tours, lists India as a popular destination. Beer giant Tuborg has gay connotations in its ads, so does Dolce & Gabana.
Says gay rights activist Ashok Row Kavi, “India is taking tentative steps. One notices a line of T-shirts, queer-friendly hotels.â€
Curiously, the fashion community, with a fair number of homosexual designers, is still biding its time. A top gay designer confides, however, “We’re thinking of ‘dedicated’ labels.â€
And why not? After all, it’s about 26 million Indians we’re talking about here!
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