It wasn’t a long time back when racial discrimination was prevalent in major parts of the world. Even today, it happens behind the closet but here’s a discrimination which the law doesn’t recognise as an act of discrimination. Today in India considering Section 377, many heterosexuals consider Homosexuals to be abnormal.
To change this perspective, Queer-Kala organized an event on 12th December, 2015 called, “Queer Hugs”. The main objective of the event was to spread awareness about the LGBTQ community and mark the anniversary of the blacklisted judgement against homosexuals on 11th December 2013. The judgement under Section 377 declared sexual relations other than between a man and a woman as “Unnatural” and an Offence.
We captured snapshots of people who without hesitation hugged volunteers from the community. But where there is support, a little opposition is expected.
When Sumit, the organizer of the event approached a couple, they refused to participate in the event. They kept contending about their disapproval by saying that it’s not in our culture.
It is the individuality of the person that should matter and not the cultural lock-down. Where on one hand we had this couple who refused to participate due to ignorance, we spotted a man, quite old who with open arms, embraced the gay volunteers present at the venue. It’s clear, that we have people in all generations supporting the cause but need to be more vocal about it.
Contradictory to all oppositions, a bunch of college students were spotted supporting the event with enthusiasm. Being a Saturday evening, the crowd was huge. Joggers, children, tourists and many more happily supported the cause. It was heartening to see a family asking their kid to hug a GAY volunteer in order to teach the kid that there is no difference between him and anybody else on this planet.
India is progressing and reforming as a nation driven by Democracy. The Judiciary in order to contribute to the process of reformation has to be equally progressive.