50 Years of LGBTQP Pride, Why to talk about it?
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Pansexual or simply LGBTQP; what is it? From where did this ‘contamination’ infiltrate this 21st century?
But I’ve a pertinent question, is it really something new and unfamiliar? Isn’t it “unnatural”? But then the ancient Greek civilization wherein male bonding was ‘normal’ is not new or unknown. Ismat Chughtai was considered to have knowledge of homosexuality when she wrote “Lihaaf” and it reflected in that short story, but she just reflected the reality of the world she saw. Or be it W.H. Auden, who himself was a homosexual and through his poems talked about the lack of acceptance of queers in the society. Homosexuality existed and was recognized be it in the ancient Graeco-Roman antiquity, modern India or postmodern America.
Yet what is this hollah about LGBTQ pride!!! Why do heterosexuals see homosexuals as “queer”? Why is this weird disparity in society? Why are individuals deprived of their basic human rights and their choice of sexuality and sexual orientation considered “unnatural”?
These are the few tenets that today LGBTQ pride parade looks for- the recognition, acceptance and the freedom of one’s sexuality.
In addition to this, May 17 is recognized as the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOBIT). It is not a campaign or a movement against homophobic and transgender-phobic society, but a call, a moment to act against this “queer” phobia and to acknowledge disparities. From this idea of differences come the idea of rainbow, wherein different colors exist on same plane and each colour has its own identity and they together give the essence of ‘rainbow’. The phobia has reached to an extent where people are transgender bathroom phobic and thus these queers have to demand for unisexual bathrooms.
Mr. Anwesh Kumar Sahoo, Mr Gay India 2016 in a video of “Gaysi Family” sarcastically remarked to the stereotypical silly questions asked to gay men and said, “One fine morning I pooped and realized that my poop has turned sparkling rainbow and I went dayumm! I’m gay”.
While a well recognized author of postmodern world questioned the ‘normalcy’ of heterosexuality and thereby subverting the “normal” society by asking what made them “normal”.
While on one hand, there are countries like France who accept same sex marriages and some countries including India consider sticking to the norms of nature. Moreover, states like Arizona, Florida have gone to the extent of passing a “bathroom bill” wherein people need to use the bathrooms as per the sex mentioned on the birth certificate, however some states have “modernized” themselves by allowing transgender people to change their sex on birth certificate. However, IDAHOBIT is celebrated in over 130 countries including 37 nations where same-sex acts are illegal. Moreover, millions of people are mobilized through the events like gay pride parade supporting human rights irrespective of one’s sex, sexuality, sexual orientation or personality.
May be, it was the terming of homosexuality as a grave sin and a temptation by Satan, as declared by the holy church of Vatican City. This was done in order to exercise control over the impulses and urges of people and curb the open practice and preference during ancient antiquity. Even media as well helped in furthering the stereotypes, when pink shirt became identities of gay men and those gestures. Everything was just stereotyped and they were made feminine. Nothing ‘masculine’ was “them”. People, in real-time as well considered their children to be sick and thus in need of medication, counseling or the most regressive method was marriage in order to incite and fuel the ‘natural’ impulses towards the opposite sex.
Nevertheless, there is a need to understand that there is nothing to be afraid of the sexual orientation. It is an individual’s choice and it must be respected. It is not a mental disorder and this day is celebrated in the commemoration of the decision taken by World Health Organization in 1990 to misclassify LGBTQ as some psychological or mental problem.
Sexual intercourse is for pleasure and has a “fulfilling purpose” as well, so isn’t this entire “fiasco” out of ‘order’. How can homosexuals and transgenders fulfill the purpose? But I’ve a question there are millions of children in the world who are just abandoned, can’t they be adopted? Moreover, the same pleasure that a heterosexual derive, is experienced by them as well. For you that pleasure has your own definition, for them it has its own meaning. There are people who attain utmost pleasure through pain, then isn’t that as well pleasure? Then why only these LGBTQ are looked down upon with contempt? Moreover, more than anything it’s not just about sex, it is about how and where one feels comfortable. You cannot keep one measure for all, all cannot fit into one scale. Another question that erupts here is, how do you know that this ‘measure’ of yours is apt and not theirs? Power is attained by marginalizing other, by describing other as “other”- the ‘unlike-self’. But one needs to understand the duality, and reciprocative nature of this vision and viewpoint where in the “other” and “unlike-self” enters into power play. Nevertheless why you need to step on other’s back to achieve your power!!!
