Eighteen years after India held its first Queer Pride Parade, the event finally came to Lucknow on Sunday. The city’s LGBIT (lesbian, gay, intersex and transgender) community walked a distance of barely 1.5 km, from the Sikandarbagh crossing to the General Post Office Hazratganj, but their message went a long way.

The first Awadh Queer Pride Parade saw at least 300 people march hand in hand, waving rainbow flags or wearing its colours. Many of them had come from as far away as Mumbai, Kolkata, Chandigarh and Jaipur.

“This was a full-fledged Queer Pride Parade,” said Darvesh Singh Yadvendra, the organiser of the event. “The first one was held in Kolkata in 1999 but in that, very few people turned out. Here, for the first time it was held and not only LGBIT but their family members turned out in support. It shows that they are also getting acceptability.”

The first Awadh Queer Pride Parade in Lucknow on Sunday.

Yadvendra said the parade had two objectives: to celebrate the diversity of sexuality and gender, and to protest the harassment and discrimination the community faces. “There have been cases where such people have committed suicide,” he said. “We have seen discrimination in the family, at the work place and in society.”

But Sunday’s march was mainly about the celebration. Participants danced, shouted slogans – “I am Gay, It’s OK”, “Hey Hey Ho Ho Homophobia has to Go”. One placard that got all the attention read, “I’m a Queer Muslim, Babes, Get Over it.” The young man holding it up was happy to oblige the many people who flooded him with selfie requests.

The parade had many Lucknow residents curious about the message behind the march.

Curious onlookers asked the participants who they were, why they were dancing on the road, and about the colourful clothes they wore.

By evening, social media users in Lucknow had flooded their pages with photographs of the city’s first gay pride parade.

Participants danced on the streets and shouted slogans. It was a celebration.

Colourful clothes, masks and rainbow flags marked the occasion.

Many participants came with their families in tow, said the organiser.

The parade comes just a few weeks after a new government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, has taken charge of Uttar Pradesh. Could it have been conducted under the previous regime?

“We started the preparation for a whole year. At that time, it was the SP [Samajwadi Party] regime,” said Yadvendra. “Whosoever is in power, we have to engage with them. It hardly matters. We took proper permission [for the parade] and it was given by the present BJP regime. So for us, there is no such issue. We have to engage with them for our cause.”

Selfies and photographs of the event had flooded social media by evening.

For Lucknow, often perceived to be a conservative city, this was indeed a brave step. As woman who attended the parade later said on social media, people were now terming her association with the parade as “un-Islamic”.

But there were many others who were cheering on the community.

All images courtesy Darvesh Singh Yadvendra, organiser of the parade.