Nagpur:

This Saturday, the city will witness a unique event as hundreds of people, whom the world identifies as ‘queer’, would take centre stage and flaunt their true selves with pride. Members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual (

) community of the city and several nearby cities are an excited bunch as they prepare to participate in the event.

Several young members of the community will be participating in the first edition of the Orange City LGBT Pride March. Participants will be assembling at Samvidhan Square at 3pm. After a brief round of speeches about the importance of the event, they will embark on the march.

“It may be a short march, but it is a giant achievement for each of the participants. After all, it is an avenue to show what we are and demand equality that the Constitution accords to us as citizens of India,” said Anand Chandrani, founder trustee of Sarathi Trust, which is organizing the march. He said that this will also be an opportunity to show those who oppose the community getting their rights that they have open support from several organizations and straight people. This, he said, will be helpful in the face of the legal battle faced by the community.

“It is wrongly believed that it is only in the big cities that the LGBT community is present. The

provides us the chance to instill confidence in people who are still in the closet, and to tell them that they don’t need to be ashamed of themselves,” said activist Lovesh Pande.

“Closets are for clothes, not for people,” agreed 23-year-old model Subodh Kanade. “Despite living in a free country, several of us are forced to live a repressed life. If our coming forward and participating in the march can help someone else gather courage to come out of the closet, it would be a great achievement for us,” said 25-year-old Amit, who is all set to participate in the parade with his boyfriend.

For young volunteer Yamini, the event is a way to answer questions without really saying anything, by being herself in front of everyone. Engineering student Nilay Joshi (21) says his participation would be symbolic of the support that will be ready and available for those who are still in the closet, whenever they do decide to come out. “If one friend in their life rejects them for their sexuality, they will have four new friends to lend support through tough times,” he said.