Gays rally for equal rights

Chennai, June 28: Chennai has indeed come of age. The hitherto ‘conservative’ people of the city witnessed a colourful outburst of pride — a parade of people who wore their sexualities on their sleeves and succeeded in making the average Sunday beach-goer curious. Chennai’s first LGBT (Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender) rally that marched along the Marina beach stretch had the makings of a full-blown carnival — there was song and dance, same-sex couples walking hand-in-hand, some wearing masks, waving rainbow-hued banners and placards.

While June is celebrated as ‘LGBT Pride month’ internationally, Chennai’s first such march saw over 250 participants, including ‘straight’ friends and family of the community members. A consortium of LGBT support groups and human rights organizations organised similar rallies in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru, and for the first time in Chennai and Bhubaneshwar.

The celebration of sexuality, or rather, homosexuality started off with most same sex couples hiding behind masks, but halfway to the Gandhi statue, the masks came off. “I might lose my job if my bosses see me on TV,” said an emotional Ajay, who works for an international bank. “But if my company accepts a homosexual employee in Europe, the rules should be the same here,” he added.

Housewife Radhika (43), accompanied by her teenaged daughters, wanted to know what the fuss was about.

“You must be used to the idea of a man and a woman falling in love, because that is what our movies and serials depict and that is what is considered ‘normal’. But men fall in love with men and women fall in love with women, and some people have intimate relationships with both sexes,” explained Anirudh, an LGBT rights activist.

Even as a gaping crowd formed around the large group of marchers, which included some prominent personalities — transgender celebrity Kalki and fashion choreographer Sunil Menon, lesbian members were very few.

“It is expecting too much. There have been 8 lesbian double suicides in the past few years, they are not accepted like even homosexual men are,” Anirudh laments.