All About Queerpendence

Last week, after decades of being persecuted by the state and being short-changed by society, LGBTQ citizens in India finally got a shout-out from the highest court in the land. Apparently, India has had gay citizens since its inception and they just didn’t appear from nowhere right after Star World suspiciously started airing Will & Grace . Who would’ve thunk it?

. Sure, it’s a momentous judgment. Not only does it declare that gay people exist in India, it also lays a foundation to build upon to give LGBTQ citizens all the rights that have been denied to them. Happy Queerependence Day, everyone!

. But it also makes us ask the question: What took you so long?

. This could have happened sooner. In fact, it did: in July 2009, when the Delhi High Court gave us our first Queerependence Day. Millions of Indians had their first tryst with destiny. Their first whiff of freedom. That was the original throwing away the yoke of colonialism.

. But the status quo never gives up easily!

. The backlash to progress came swiftly. That very year bigots from all religions and other busybodies filed a petition in the Supreme Court, asking it to wave its magic wand and use whatever legal spell it could conjure up to make the gay community disappear again. The LGBTQA community did what even the great MK Gandhi couldn’t do: get these uninformed religious chauvinists to temporarily cease hostilities with each other to fight their “common enemy.” Haha, we thought. Look at those idiots with their silly arguments that can’t even stand muster at a mock court in law school, let alone be taken seriously at the highest court in the land.

. But then the worst happened. Instead of telling all the bigots to shove their bigotry where the sun doesn’t shine, the Supreme Court concurred with them. The pulpit of the Supreme Court was used to bully, insult and dehumanise one of the country’s most vulnerable citizens. The judgment didn’t just stop at denying the gay community their “so-called rights.” It said several terrible things that were uncalled for. Millions of people, their entire existence, and their hopes and dreams were dismissed as musings of a “minuscule minority.”

. This was not an occupying country imposing its Victorian mentality on us. This was a bunch of Indian citizens using their power to deny the humanity of those without any. Re-imposing that terrible law on a community just beginning to unglue itself from the margins was extreme inhumanity.

. So when we talk about the judgment in Navtej Johar v Union of India , it’s wrong to say that we’re decolonising. We had already decolonised. This was a cruel and unusual punishment that was precipitated by our own people.

. If we had a political system that wasn’t made up of cowards, sycophants and charlatan, we could have fixed that legislatively. Sure, some politicians made statements supporting the community. But no one actually put their words into action. All we had was lip service and farce.

. Anyway, bygones! We’re not supposed to bring up the truth right now. We’re supposed to gnash our teeth, put a smile on our face and get on the bandwagon. Just like every vapid wannabe woke bae on social media their virtue-signalling corporate counterparts. We’ve come so far. Even the app that delivers your pizza is tweeting out pictures of rainbow pastries. Look! Progress!

. Which is not to say that one isn’t grateful for the support, even if it is vapid. Jumping on the bandwagon is still better than not saying anything.

. But it begs the question: Where were you?

. Where were you when millions of us were forced into the closet? Where were you when everything from pop-culture to the highest court in the land was demeaning us? Where were you when we were bullied into suicide? Where were you when we lost our friends and family just because we dared to live our lives openly?

. Where were you, dear allies in the media, when homophobes were using your platforms to inject young, impressionable gay people with self-hatred? Where was your wokeness when you put gay activists on the same panel as a gaggle of homophobes? Where were you, dear editors, when your newspapers were being used by quacks to pass on their cockamamie theories about homosexuality as fact.

. Where were you, dear Bollywood, when your straight actors were pantomiming being gay to get cheap laughs in their movies or at award shows as if to say “LOL, the idea of same-gender intimacy is ridiculous, innit?” Where was your solidarity then, friend?

. Dear corporates, where were you when your LGBTQA employees were being bullied by their straight counterparts or when all they wanted to do was put in an honest day’s work and get home but still had to face schoolyard taunts while the human resources departments simply shrugged in response?

. Do you know what it’s like to be in the closet? To live a lie because you have no other choice. To have a secret that keeps corroding your insides. To hide everything that makes you human? To feel like a prisoner in your own life? To take part in your own dehumanisation because you feel that not participating will make people suspicious?

. Or to be begrudgingly accepted by the people you love but never being able to discuss your life, your crushes, your loves, and your heartbreaks with them? Or shrinking yourself to such an extent so as to make yourself palatable to everyone you know? Or to put other people’s “comfort” before your humanity?

. I can already hear someone go: But why would you want to talk about your sex life? Which is my cue to shake my head and tell you that it’s not about sex life. Straight people get to talk about their crushes, significant others, celebrities they would like to date, general conversations about the hotness of the person they saw at a bus stop. But the minute a gay person mentions something about a person they like, most straight people shut down faster than a government office during lunchtime.

. Again, bygones!

. Another question that we’re asked is: What can we do now?

. Thank you. Glad you asked. You can do plenty!

. If you’re part of a media organisation, don’t lend your platform to bigots. Human rights should never be up for debate. That’s not a free speech matter. Don’t get conned. Also, you have to get better at telling LGBTQA stories. Don’t send someone who hasn’t met any gay person in their entire life to cover them. There is not just one story. There are millions. An ignorant or uninformed person cannot tell them. Hire more LGBTQA people and let them tell their stories.

. If you’re someone with power in the movie industry, help bring LGBTQA artistes bring their stories to life. And if you feature LGBTQA characters in your movies, try to do so with empathy.

. If you’re the one political party that released a statement supporting gay rights, then do something other than lip service. Use your political power to help build on the foundation of the Navtej Johar judgment. Don’t just do things when you’re out of power. Maybe you can start by sensitising your own party members.

. If you’re a corporation, then you should alter your hiring policies to make sure that people are not discriminated against because of their sexuality. Have sensitivity training in your offices. For all the free goodwill you’ve earned by trying to be everyone’s woke bae, invest some resources in making things better for your LGBTQA employees.

. And if you’re an ally, then don’t stand for discrimination. If you can’t stop it, let the person know that you’re there for them. Don’t make assumptions about people. Don’t out people without taking their permission first. Don’t treat them as stereotypes. Don’t say “what sort of gay are you ya” if a gay man tells you that they don’t know what a “Sabyasachi” is. Don’t ask a lesbian couple “But who is the man in your relationship?” because neither of them is the man. That is the point.

. If you suspect someone of being gay, don’t make it obvious. Don’t say “I knew it!” if someone comes out to you. They’ve built up their courage for months and years to have this moment so don’t go ruin it for them by being so extra. You can subtly make it clear to them by hinting that you’re not a homophobe, but don’t go overboard.

. I mean, you don’t have to do any of those things. Expecting basic human decency from most of the Indian media or empathy from Bollywood or asking Corporate India to do something good for their employees is a fool’s errand. But if anyone wants to do something other than share rainbow-tinged memes, now you have a to-do list.

. The Supreme Court’s judgment of Queerependence was historic. But the delay in righting this historical wrong came at a huge cost for a lot of people. So if you weren’t there for the other fights, you can be there for the future ones. This is just the first step. We have a long way to go.

. But for the moment, if there is anger, there is also happiness. And there is catharsis. Congratulations on joining us on the right side of history.

. Y’all finally caught up with us.

All About Queerpendence

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