Colourful intersectionality

Kissing under the rainbow flag, surrounded by all allies or members of the LGBTQI community at a queer pride, one does not feel the fear that is all pervasive in a queer person’s life.

Wanting to remain anonymous, a gay couple at the Delhi Queer pride expressed, “This is not just a celebration of our existence, this community is also our safe space. Today we are kissing under this giant floating rainbow flag, and not in open because we can see how this pride march is being stalked by the special police forces who are documenting this. What is the need for this documentation? How safe do you think we will feel while kissing at our own event if this will happen?”

Surrounded by the police, the ninth pride march in Delhi, which began at Tolstoy Marg and ended at Jantar Mantar, saw a very vibrant and diverse crowd, representing various sections of the rainbow.

Comparing the Delhi pride with others, Kristi Littleton, a content development manager from US observed, “I have been to New York queer pride and Philadelphia queer pride apart from this one in Delhi. I feel even though it’s smaller than it is in New York or Philadelphia, it’s more genuine. The ones over there are so dominated by corporate giants. This is smaller but nicer."

While the pride saw a lot of young enthusiasm, it also saw debates amongst some groups on class issue. Divya Dureja, who also recited poetry at the event, said, “The pride has been before criticised for being elitist for a long time now. This year we have made an attempt to be more inclusive. We involved free e-rickshaws and tried to make a space for differently-abled people. There is an entire group of mute and hearing-impaired people in this year's pride.”

The pride invite and parcha (flyer) is a very colourful one each year, but that wasn’t the case this year. Queer poet and activist, Aditi Angiras said, “We have talked about intersectionality this year. The pride flyer reads very different this year. It's black and white this year because we are focusing more on the text.”

Talking about the criticism of queer pride being elitist, she added, “It is still elitist in the sense that all the organisers are upper class, but they really have made an attempt to reach out to all sections of the society.”

Angiras also said, “Last year the pride was criticised for only being focused on section 377. But that happened because we were still recovering from the judgement that brought it back. But this year other issues have also found space in the pride."

The pride did focus on other aspects such as trans rights; justice for Tara, a transwoman who was found burnt to death in Chennai, and implementation of Supreme Court’s NALSA judgement. It also demanded action against anti-minority violence and the recent crack-down on certain people under the name of nationalism. The flyer did cover a variety of issues apart from demanding repeal of section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.

The pride saw a lot of performances by dancers, singers and poets as well. “I have been coming to Delhi Queer Pride for years and look forward to joining it next year as well,” said Anny.