I’ve been waiting for this ever since I moved to Mumbai a year ago. As soon as I found out about the LGBTQ movement in various states all over India especially Mumbai, I wanted to get involved immediately with whatever they’ve got going on.

Especially after living in the Gulf for almost a decade, where basic human rights were not regarded as something absolutely tantamount to a healthy, progressive and well informed society. In fact it was the exact opposite of all of that, and before anyone starts yelling at me about how every country has it own rules that are to be respected no matter how primitive or heartless they are; my only response to that is, the right for a human being to be free to love whomever they want, to express themselves however they want and to question everything, trumps any kind of restrictive, intrusive and oppressive law out there be they religious or not. In fact I hate the word respect being shoved in my face when most of the time, it is in accordance to a higher dominating power that has no interest in showing any reciprocity of that word to the people that are under their governance. Fuck respect. I have come to that point in my life where I do not care about being polite anymore when it comes to my rights and the rights of every other person who is a minority in this heteronormative nightmare of a world.

And I say that as a cis woman of colour.

This was not my first Pride. I was lucky enough to witness Pride in London in the summer of 2015, just after the US Supreme Court finally approved same sex marriages across the States, so it was a gargantuan celebration, and we were in the thick of it smack in the middle of Soho. I had never witnessed anything more soul awakening. Even while smushed in a crowd of thousands upon thousands, I did not feel unsafe and even my claustrophobia seemed absent as all I could feel was an intense and very tangible love that was just emanating from every single person that was there that day. It changed me. I had always been an ally, but that was the day I saw, felt and heard how a collective much needed change was so possible.

But our voices are needed for it to be possible. We need to be louder than ever, fiercer and so much more unapologetically uninhibited in our fight for LGBTQ and women’s rights everywhere.

It was a complete honour and a dream come true to be part of Mumbai’s Pride March this year on January 28. The main organiser- Queer Azadi Mumbai, along with several others such as Humsafer Trust and GayBombay conducted such a fantastic job where everything went seamlessly and peacefully but was also raging fun. The allies came out in great numbers as well. I saw Mothers for Equality posters, Student movement unions, Future Doctors for Equality banners and even a whole choir group from the UK turned up to collaborate with local singing groups and marched under a banner called Pink Singers.

The colours were endless, there were costumes galore, doggies in rainbow outfits, men in heels, a giant rainbow flag that everyone took turns holding up, and the drums pounded the whole way while we all danced along South Bombay starting from August Kranti Maidan (Grant Station) in unison. It was magnanimously inclusive this year as well, because the organisers made sure of disability-friendly accesses to everything going on so no one would be left out.

The forefront issue this year which I witnessed many referencing to, was the call to abolish Section 377 in the Indian Penal Code, which dates back to 1860, during British rule; criminalising any sexual activity that are “against the order of nature”, arguably including homosexual sexual activities. The section was decriminalized with respect to sex between consenting adults by the High Court of Delhi on July 2009. But that judgement was overturned by the Supreme Court of India on 11 December 2013, with the Court holding that amending or repealing Section 377 should be a matter left to Parliament, not the judiciary. Basically just a way of saying, we miss being colonized. Same goes for my own country, Malaysia, where “sodomy” is still illegal. My next years poster is gonna loudly read, keep your laws off of our rectums.

I dream of a world where queer folk do not need to “come out” anymore. Just like hetero people never needed to. We will never be able to eradicate hate and injustice but we need to get to a place where the voices of reason overpower those who do not believe in equality. And we will get there by continuing to be obnoxiously and unapologetically loud in our fight for it. You can bet your life on it.