I was working in office today... even thought it was Sunday to meet some deadlines. Therefore had a chance to see the Queer Pride Parade 2014 passing through Tolstoy Marg where my office is located. It was a mixed kind of feeling on seeing the parade. It was a mix of mature and immature sloganeering. A poster was cracking joke on 'Gay PM'. Many people were insulting RSS and other Right-Wing Organizations for their anti-gay stand. By my estimate there were around 500-800 people who were actively participating in the parade, many others like me just standing by.
I felt bad about following:
1. Immature slogans being shouted and PM Narendra Modi being insulted.
2. Selective criticism of anti-gay groups. (Minority Groups who are even more homophobic were spared for some unknown reasons)
3. Lack of civic sense among participants (some where smoking, littering and others were violating traffic rules. In my opinion it creates bad impression in the mind of people about gays!)
There were some good take-aways as well like:
1. Strength of the people participating was good.
2. Many tried to carry the parade like a movement.
3. The most refined was the poster carried by a man walking behind the parade. It read "The show will go on."
Also I was wondering how and why Delhi Police could de-facto be in contempt of Supreme Court by calmly walking along with openly gays (the criminals!!) and loosing the great opportunity to arrest them and bring them to justice!! (After all being gay still remains a serious crime in India attracting 7 years of imprisonment!!) :(
Sharing few pics of the event.
