Out in the Open

About a month ago,Anindya Hajra of the city-based LGBT group Pratyay decided to throw a party to celebrate the successful conclusion of,Dialogues,Kolkata’s only Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) film festival. It was a party endorsed by the glitterati of the city,the intellectuals and the media. “We had to pull a few strings to get the venue,but otherwise things were quite easy,” says Hajra. This is not the first time such a party was organized in the city neither will it be the last time. The Park and the nightclubs there,namely Aqua,Tantra and Roxy,have hosted such parties before and will continue to do so. “The Park has never discriminated entry to any of our outlets on the basis of a person’s sexual orientation which we believe is a very personal issue and this has nothing to do with pre or post the Section 377 ruling,” says Diya Basu,director,Public relations and communication,the Park.

The scene however,is quite to the contrary in Delhi where the LGBT community could finally celebrate in open only after the High Court there ruled that Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code,which criminalizes consensual sex between adults of same sex,was a violation of human rights. Finally the likes of Zohran Sheikh did not have to search for a “dingy room being passed off as a gay club or an even shadier farmhouse”. July 3 was party time for the Delhi LGBT community. “We could finally be in a mainstream club with our partners and it felt good,” says Sheikh.

Kolkata didn’t exactly have any such jubilant celebrations but many feel that it didn’t need to. “Most nightclubs are quite gay-friendly in the city and I haven’t had problems gaining entry in any of them,” says Debjyoti Ghosh,a city-based lawyer. “We recently hosted a gay themed part and we are open to such ideas,” says Soumitro Basu of Plush,a lounge bar.

However,like in Delhi the transgender community of Kolkata has problems gaining entry to its so-called “gay-friendly” pubs. “We were recently turned away from a popular South Kolkata pub which hosts Gay nights ever week because of the way we were dressed,” says Deepa who identifies herself as a transgender.

(With inputs from Anushree Majumdar)