AHMEDABAD: Among those who participated in the Queer Pride Parade and Queer Mela , organized in Ahmedabad on Sunday, was Sushant Mehra (name changed to protect privacy), 24, who also brought his parents along. Mehra, a hotel management graduate, came out about his sexual orientation some three years ago and confessed before his parents that he is gay.“It took my parents a long time to accept that I am gay. They’re supportive to an extent, but have their reservations. I brought them along to the Queer Mela because I wanted to show them that I’m not alone and there are several people like me! I wanted to show them the ‘queer’ side to help them accept it and accept me,” said Mehra.There were several others like Mehra who participated in the pride parade for one or the other reason – either to support the cause or voicing their concerns at various levels. The Queer Pride Parade began from Kanoria Centre for Arts and culminated at Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, where the Queer Mela had also been organized. Both the events marked the last day of of Gujarat ’s first Queer Conference – Sambandh. Some 200 people – majority of them being LGBTQIA (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer Intersex and Allies) participated in the parade and the mela.“Such platforms are important for us to establish our identity. I don’t want to be labelled based on my sexual orientation and instead, would prefer that my work speaks for me, just like it does for most others. To achieve this, it is important to establish our existence and eventually seek acceptance in the society,” said Brijesh Jani, a choreographer.Queer Pride parade has been organized in Ahmedabad thrice before but never on such a massive scale. Sharing reasons behind the initiative, Shamini Kothari, convener of the conference, said, “Pride parade was the perfect way to end the conference, which focused on academic discussions on queer lives from various perspectives. The parade was organized with a view to showcase visibility of the community, its strength in the society and the call for acceptance.”The conference which had been spread over two days touched upon issues of queer orientation in culture and its representations in literature and cinema in addition to queer behaviour and relationships, the politics around queer, among others.