While the community witnessed an increase in cultural opportunities, legal discourse on relevant political issues remained at an impasse

As 2017 draws to a close, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, hijra (LGBTIQH) community in Mumbai gears up for its tenth Pride March in February 2018. Every weekend community members and allies meet at The Humsafar Trust or the Godrej India Culture Lab to plan activities for Pride. Inevitably, reflection sets in and the realization that 2017 seems to have vanished in no time. Ten years ago, even a single event around the community created enough ripples for all to get excited. Today the queer scene is vibrant with diverse choices.

Fun and frolic

We’ve got parties by groups like Gay Bombay, Salvation Star and Rage. Dirty Talk, (open mic nights) and bar meet-ups by Gaysi; regular acceptance meets; Likho Awards by The Humsafar Trust; picnics and more. There are many diverse interest groups such as the QGraphy and QKnit for photography; and sporting events by Umang (an LBT support group) and Gaysi. Also, there’s the adventure platform QHunt that organises treasure hunts across Mumbai for the sportier community members. For the more politically inclined, there’s Queer & Political that discusses queer identity with politics. Recently, we’ve seen the ‘Seenagers’ emerge for senior gay men.

The purpose of these events is to mobilise the LGBTIQH community and offer social avenues for younger, less confident people to be at peace with their sexual orientation. The events also serve to apprise non-involved community members of developments in the advocacy and the human rights space. These events are self-funded and supported by the community through grants, crowd funding, ticket sales or donations.

Protecting the personal

When it came to the larger issues about the rights discourse in 2017, two main issues were immediately relevant – the Right to Privacy Bill and the the Transgender Persons Rights Bill. Both have the potential to make things better or worse for us. Regarding Section 377, reading down arguments have reached the Supreme Court and lost appeals. It was redirected for parliamentary discussion in 2011 and two review petitions have also been rejected by the Supreme Court. The curative petition was eventually referred to a Constitutional bench last year, which has yet to convene for a final hearing.

There are mixed feelings within the community about any possibility of change with the current political climate. This is mainly due to their election manifesto that has been clearly anti- LGBTIQH. Some though, are hopeful that the 2019 elections will draw light to the Section 377 issue. But its reading down is not on anybody’s priority list. With that in perspective, the Right to Privacy Bill arguments raised new hope in August 2017. This Bill has been used as an argument in the High Court during the reading down verdict of Section 377 in 2009. The inclusion of sexual orientation in the discourse has huge ramifications for the arguments in the Section 377 case. While the judgement did not address the section, it provided a fillip for introducing an angle and a valid argument on invasion of privacy and the rights of LGBTIQH individuals.

Regressing progress

While the discussion around the Right to Privacy bill seemed to move in the right direction, it’s disappointing that issues around the Transgender Persons Rights Bill regressed. The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) judgement and the private member Transgender Bill in Rajya Sabha by Tamil Nadu MP Tiruchi Siva brought in sophisticated arguments of looking at transgender identity. The current bill is a truncated version of the original NALSA judgement. Not only does it pathologise the transgender identity, it burdens it with a bureaucratic process, ignoring some of the key recommendations and last but not the least does away with the reservations proposed in area of education and employment for transgender citizens. There was a very small window of opportunity offered to the transgender /hijra community to engage with the government and offer explanations. Moreover, the trans identity which includes the female-to-male transgender groups who feel left out in the discourse. The age-old gharana system of the hijra community has been ignored and laws that disrupt the construct have been proposed. This does not augur well for the transgender rights discourse in the country which was once hailed as more progressive than even tin the West.

To sum up, while 2017 sees a great deal of cultural and outreach activity within the LGBTIQH community, there seems to be a stalemate on legal discourse. Though we have not given up on engaging with the government on these issues, there seems to be hesitation and fear to speak out. It is also probably a world politics issue, with some of the leading countries electing homophobic country heads. Yet the LGBTIQH community tries to make sense by aligning its politics in a productive manner. So, let’s not give up and keep our fingers crossed for 2018.