Congress has a place for everyone: Mario da Penha All India Head LGBTAQI+ vertical AIPC

After his graduation in history, da Penha moved to Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to pursue his masters. “From Delhi, I was introduced to the long arc of queer activism which helped me immensely in the later years,” he said.

Post his masters Mario enrolled for PhD in New York State University and the subject for his dissertation was — “The history of hijras in pre-colonial and post-colonial western India.” While he still remains on the rolls of the University, he has taken an academic break and hopes to go back to defend his dissertation soon enough.

Mario comes from a family which had always voted for Congress. “The idea of Congress is diversity – which was threatened by the one nation, one language, one leader of the present dispensation,” he said. As the India head of LGBTQIA+ vertical, Mario said his main aim is to reach out to the community and get them to understand the Congress ideology.

Since the abolition of Section 377 by the Supreme Court of India in 2009 mainstream political parties have tried to include queer politicians within their folds. But Congress was the first party he said that formed a vertical for them.

Diversity he said is the need of the hour and through his new position he wants to see that it finds echo in the working of the party. “I will be travelling quite a bit meeting people to tell them they have a home in the party,” he said. He said he has received calls from various parts of the country from people of the party to understand the queer policies and politics of Congress. “So I had calls from Gorakhpur and other places, from those who wanted to know about this. I intend to travel to meet people who work on the field,” he said.

At present, the Centre has announced a slurry of measures for sexual minorities like allowing them to open bank accounts and to nominate their partners as nominees. Mario said his work will help Congress decide on an inclusive future plan which will reflect the hopes and aspirations of the community.