India’s first nationally-coordinated gay parade marches carried out in Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore concluded peacefully yesterday, turning the page to a fresh chapter on queer rights in India. According to the AFP:
In Kolkata in the east, some 400 people took part in the city's annual Gay Pride parade, drawing curious stares from thousands of onlookers lining the roads to watch the procession.<snip>
In New Delhi, where gays, lesbians and transgendered individuals have never attempted a public march, some 300 people gathered for a two-kilometre walk in the heart of the capital.<snip>
The southern technology hub of Bangalore also saw its first-ever gay pride parade.
As in Kolkata and New Delhi, some of the 600 participants wore masks to conceal their faces while others wore fancy clothes to draw public attention in the cosmopolitan city, home to many Indian and international IT companies.
Activists are trying to change the law which, in addition to the social pressure, is making any kind of change impossible. Maseeh Rahman from the Guardian:
India does not explicitly outlaw homosexuality but under an 1861 penal code enacted by the British colonial government, "carnal intercourse against the order of nature between any man, woman or animal" is punishable by imprisonment up to life. The law is mainly used against paedophiles, but the high-profile arrest of four gay men in 2006 in Lucknow highlighted the fact that across India corrupt police sometimes utilise the law to blackmail and even rape homosexuals.
