It was a carnival atmosphere. Clad in gaudy costumes, sporting bright masquerade masks and wearing over the top make-up, the city’s Lesbians, Gays, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community came out into the open and poured onto the Necklace Road stretch.
Sunday would be a long cherished day for the LGBT members as they danced to the beats of latest Hindi movie songs, leaving behind their inhibitions and insecurities in the closet. They hugged, cheered and egged each other to be proud for being a part of the first LGBT movement in Hyderabad.
The ‘Hyderabad Queer Pride-2013’, the LGBT rally also became a rallying point for the community members to talk openly about same-sex marriages, equal rights and violence faced by their members.
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“Such rallies are important for our community members because it provides us an opportunity to raise big issues impacting LGBT community. There is a need for the society to seriously consider same sex marriages in India. This will definitely help stop discrimination of LGBT members,” feels Andy Silveira, a researcher at EFLU, Hyderabad.
Holding the rainbow flag that symbolises the LGBT movement and carrying placards supporting the LGBT cause, large number of professionals working in top MNCs in Hyderabad including Facebook, Google, GE and Accenture turned-up on an individual basis.
Some of the posters held by them screamed for attention. ‘I love my boyfriend and can’t wait to marry him. Same sex marriage is everybody’s right’, declared one poster. Another placard announced ‘Gay by Birth, Proud by Choice’ while another said ‘Gay and Lesbians Make Great Bosses’.
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Several LGBT members from Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Delhi also turned-up. “Worldwide, gay community is being recognised but here, discrimination still exists. The younger generation, however, are a lot more accommodative and understanding. Such rallies give us a platform to make public aware of our needs,” says Aarif Shaikh, General Secretary, Sarathya, an NGO working for LGBT in Bangalore.
Many passionately advocated same-sex marriage.
“Do I look like a criminal? No, but according to IPC 377, I am a criminal because same-sex is criminal. The Supreme Court should give a favourable judgement and decriminalise same-sex between consenting adults. This will also pave the way for same-sex marriages,” said G. Krishna of Suraksha Society.
A photograph accompanying this report has been removed and the inadvertant implication regretted .