PARK Street, Kolkata at 7.30 am on Sunday is normally dotted by vagrants catching a nap on park benches, crows flapping lazily in the moist breeze and the water truck washing down dusty roads criss-crossed by tramlines and bus tracks.But on June 27, as a motley crew gathered, there was a sense that an important moment was about to come alive. With rainbow flags and hand-painted banners catching the early morning light, some 150 people from all over India—there were just 13 marchers in 1999—took to the street, to commemorate the Stone Wall riots of 1969. The riots were a milestone in the queer rights movement, when hundreds of gays and lesbians were assaulted at a massive rally in downtown New York. This march was a milestone too. Organised by Kolkata queer outreach group The Integration Society, it marked the end of a rather gay summer for a marginalised community. WITH a burst of activity and a host of various events across the country, the Indian queer movement enjoyed a never-before visibility this season. Just a day before the march, the Siddharth Gautam film festival at Max Mueller, Kolkata, saw people coming from all over the country. ‘‘I’ve come all the way from Imphal, in Manipur, just to be in this march. I want to show people back home that we are a big and visible community,’’ said Lobsang. In Bangalore, the 2nd International Conference on Sexualities, Masculinities and Cultures in South Asia concluded in June. Organised by the Dharani and Swabhava Trust, the conference had several activists and intellectuals presenting papers on the ‘‘roles that sexualites and masculinities play in many aspects of human development’’. IN Mumbai, preparations are already underway for the next international queer film festival, ‘Larzish’. The first festival held in 2003 at National College, Bandra, showcased packages of short films dealing with gender and sexuality. Elsewhere, funds are being gathered by groups like the Lesbians and Bisexuals in Action (LABIA) and Sappho to fund an all-India outreach conference for women in same sex relationships from remote, farflung areas in Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh. If it works, it will be the first conference to discourse on class issues within the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) community, addressing those who struggle with the added encumbrance of an isolating and class conscious society. ‘‘Of course, films like Girlfriend come along to push back the movement by several years,’’ says Junko, a Boston-based activist with an outreach group called Masala. Mumbai groups staged a silent protest against the film and also against its banning, while others tried to march to Sena Bhavan in protest. Not against the film, but its banning. ‘‘We don’t support what was shown in the film, but freedom of speech is a fundamental right too,’’ said Ashok Row Kavi of the Humsafar Trust. AT the Kolkata march, the tales behind the flashy smiles were poignant, telling of struggles to fight stereotyping. ‘‘If my clients, or my son were to know I was part of this march, they’d be devastated,’’ said Koushik, a designer and a married bisexual, unable to ‘come out’ in a march and choosing to wear a colourful mask. But just being able to walk along with friends had its its own thrill—mask or not. There were others as well who didn’t march, dismayed by the clicking cameras. High visibility is not welcome by all. ‘‘For people who tread the borderline, a march isn’t enough. One needs to create safer spaces for these kind of people to come out,’’ said Meenakshi, a founder member of Sappho for Equality, an outreach group dealing with issues concerning sexual minorities. More summers like this one could finally do that.
