LGBTQ culture in India
Early neutral or positive references to homosexuality and transsexuality include medical journals such as the Nāradasmṛti and moral legal codes such as the Pali Cannon.
"[12] Alka Pande says that alternate sexuality was an integral part of ancient India and homosexuality was considered to be a form of the sacred, drawing upon the examples of the hermaphrodite Shikhandi and Arjuna who became a eunuch.
Such mailing lists, established well before the advent of social networking sites, continue to remain the mainstay for discussion among middle-class, English-speaking Indians, and include LGBT-India, GayBombay, Good As You (Bangalore), Pratibimb (Hyderabad), and Movenpick/Orinam (Chennai).
With variety of talk shows, music, debates etc., the channel now runs 24 hours a day[27][28] In February 2014, "Wonderful Things Happen" was founded with the objective to serve the Indian lesbian/bi women community.
Shelly Chopra Dhar's Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga was perhaps the first mainstream explicitly lesbian romance in Bollywood history after Fire (1997).
There also been a few independent films that deal with homosexuality like Sridhar Rangayan's Gulabi Aaina – The Pink Mirror, Girlfriend, Yours Emotionally, 68 Pages, Sudhanshu Saria's Loev (2015) and Ashish Sawhney's Happy Hookers.
Fire is explicit in stating that the main characters enter their relationship due to the failure of their heterosexual marriages but The Journey is a film about two lesbians who fall in love with each other.
Recently, Bollywood has portrayed homosexual relationships in a better light, such as in Dostana, Men Not Allowed and Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga, Badhaai Do.
Lisa Ray and Sheetal Sheth played gay roles opposite each other in Shamim Sarif's I Can't Think Straight and The World Unseen.
The film mainly focuses on coming out to an Indian conservative family and throws light on the struggles of a young gay teenager and the insecurities they carry well into adulthood.
[32] In recent movies, there has been a move away from the portrayal of homosexuality in a satirical and comedic way, and instead of showing a more sensitive, and empathic representation of the struggles that the community has to face.
Aligarh and Kapoor And Sons are two of the more recent blockbuster Bollywood movies, both released in 2016, that have made an impact on the portrayal of homosexual men in Indian media.
It main organisers are Orinam in partnership with Goethe-Institut, Chennai along with volunteers from various community groups and NGOs, including Nirangal, East-West Center for Counselling, RIOV, and SAATHII.
A news article by Akshay Kaushal in the Hindustan Times (3 February 2016), outlines some of these public comments; this includes: Onir, one of the few openly gay film directors who stated, "Now hopefully the five-judge constitution bench will take the decision in our favour.
Delhi-based fashion designer, who married his partner Rahul Arora stated, "I am hopeful and positive that the five-judge constitution bench will scrap section 377 and make this country a better place for us to live".
National Award-winning filmmaker Apurva Asrani, who wrote the film Aligarh, when referring to the five-judge constitutional bench stated, "the Supreme Court has allowed itself a chance to redeem itself from a blemish on its otherwise spotless image."
However, I think a disparity that can easily be addressed by amending the Indian Penal Code shouldn’t have to be a 15-year-long struggle" said actor and gay rights activist Celina Jaitley.
This is expected to change as less reprisals are feared from the general public, as shown with the inaugural Pune Pride Parade in December 2011, which required participants to dress professionally and avoid wearing masks or colorful makeup.
Participants in the parades hail from various indigenous gender and sexual minority groups and infuse the largely-Western-derived aesthetic of pride with local and national cultural trappings.
Not exclusively a queer space, The Kinky Collective includes many queer/lgbtqia+ individuals, explaining on their website that, fundamentally, "we want India to be a safer and sexier place for all people.
[88] Finally, in acknowledgement that the group included and recognized a multiplicity of genders and sexualities "Lesbians and Bisexuals in Action" became simply "LABIA—a Queer Feminist LBT Collective.
[94] Their website Archived 1 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine also provides email and phone contact information for the many folks to avail their services, support and open community space.
As the legal battle over IPC section 377 progressed, Voices—as it became known—was formed in Delhi in the fall of 2003 to represent a swath of people and groups that advocated for queer/lgbtqia+ interests, were against the penal code, and supported striking down or reading down the law.
Organizations in Voices include: Anjuman, Breakthrough, Creating Resources for Empowerment in Action (CREA), Haq: Center for Child Rights, Jagori, Nigah, Nirantar, Partners for Law in Development (PLD), PRISM, Saheli, and Sama.
[101] Founded by Ramakrishna Sinha and Srini Ramaswamy in 2017,[102] Pride Circle is still in its nascency and yet has become known and reported on across India,[103] particularly following its crowning achievement, an LGBT-focused job fair held during the summer of 2019.
[108] The LaLit also owns palaces (in Udaipur and Srinagar) and resorts (in Raj Baga, Palolem Canacona, Goa; Bekal, Kerala; Faridabad, Haryana; and Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh).
[109] The rainbow background of its sign and—visible in a photo on the website—and events listed on the website make clear that the venue caters to queer and lgbtqia+ people, and predominately to gay men.
Dutee Chand, an Indian sprinter already famous for her speed, received an extra dose of attention in 2019 following her announcement that she was in a relationship with a woman from her home village in Odisha, India.
[113] Claiming to be the first openly gay man in India, Ashok Row Kavi is a journalist and activist who founded the well-known, large, and well-funded Humsafar Trust based in Bombay.
There are many organizations in many cities of India, such as Humsafar (Mumbai), Alternative Law Forum (Bangalore), Sangama (Karnataka), Chennai Dost, Orinam.net and Nazariya[130] (Delhi NCR) are working for LGBT rights.
