Pride Month, the month of June, is witness to LGBTQ+ Pride parades all around the world. The month of June was chosen to commemorate the Stonewall Riots – a series of demonstrations by LGBT Americans against police raids at the Stonewall Inn in New York City. the 1950s and 1960s were a time of civil liberation movements along with an extremely anti-LGBT legal system.
LGBT individuals continue to be considered, unnatural, vile and unwelcome in certain parts of the world. Same-sex attraction, gender non-conformity are often considered diseases. AIDS- originally recognised as Gay Related Immuno Deficiency (GRID)- was an epidemic in the gay community, highlighted in the movie The Normal Heart, yet President Reagan took action only after the considerable damage had been done. Delayed actions and apprehensions have led to misinformed views of the LGBTQ+ community.
With regards to India, the third section has been recognised yet homosexuality is criminalised. With Taiwan being the first Asian country to legalise same-sex marriage, after Ireland and America, this step takes us backwards. Baba Ramdev has claimed to cure homosexuality, while major facets of popular Indian media continue to show LGBT individuals in stereotypical comical or villainous manners – movies such as Loev and Aligarh being an exception. As a society, we grow yet laws like this hold us back and validate wrong beliefs about homosexuality.
In the light of strife in Syria, and recent strife in the UK, along with attacks on women in India, love becomes all the more important – a positive emotion that embodies the human spirit. Acceptance too is necessary in such times. If we learn to accept parts of others, we will progress. Love and acceptance are at the core of LGBT values. This Pride Month, we should reflect on what we consider the norm, and how we can change our worldview for the better.
This Pride Month we’re celebrating at NewsAurChai – with a week full of features on different aspects of the LGBTQ+ community.
