On November 26, thousands of people from the LGBTQ community participated in the 14th edition of the Delhi Queer Pride Parade. Waving rainbow flags and multicolored balloons, the participants carried banners reading “Queers against genocide”, “Queers against fascism”, “Queer lives matter” and “Equality for all”. The display of different colors showcased acceptance and space for all expressions.
“We marched from Barakhamba road to Jantar Mantar, at a time when even this single stretch of space provided for the expression of democratic sentiments is under threat,” the organizers of the parade said.
Hundreds of participants danced and played drums as a mark of celebration and protest. Many of them were holding banners that demanded the liberation of Palestine.
The participants were clear in declaring that the Queer community opposes all sorts of violence and oppression including the genocide of Palestinians by Israel and the violence faced by minorities in India: “None of us are free until all of us are free,” a poster read.
The Queer community in Delhi has raised demands for equal marriage rights and respect of sexual diversity. Participants demanded that people across India should have the right to determine their life choices and have their fundamental rights accepted and legally protected: “Transgender rights are human rights,” the participants said.
Pride 2023 pic.twitter.com/Q7UOLYg6y3
— Shambhavi Sharma (@sshambhavii) November 27, 2023
“I am here to support my son who is Queer. The more people gather here, the more the administration knows this is an important movement. Parents should support their children irrespective of who they are,” said a participant, 48-year-old Vikram.
The participants also said that they are marching to resist and condemn the “instigators of hatred, terror and lynchings in the name of caste, region, race and gender and sexuality”.
“We march against regressive legislation that targets transgender people, we demand reservations for our community people across institutions, policy changes to protect the community, and implementation of these principles by the government,” the organizers added.
Amid a sense of long struggle to secure marriage rights, some participants were joining the parade in bride and groom attire to illustrate their fight for legalizing Queer marriages in India. For several decades, rights groups have been campaigning for the recognition of gay rights in India.
This year’s edition of the Queer Pride March comes a month after India’s top court ruled to deny the legalization of same-sex marriages. On October 17, the court denounced petitions asking for recognition of same-sex marriage within existing family laws, saying it would require legislative action that is beyond the purview of the judiciary.
Read more: India’s top court refuses to recognize same-sex marriage
The court did however order authorities to establish hotlines and safe houses for those individuals who are vulnerable, address exclusion of same-sex couples from benefits, and to end involuntary medical procedures aimed at LGBT+ couples or transgender and intersex children.
The legal rights of the LGBT+ have been expanding over the past decade due to the intervention of the Supreme Court.
In 2018, the LGBTQ community in India won a major victory after the Supreme Court struck down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which criminalized homosexuality.
“We think that legal rights remain valueless, unless we build a culture of acceptance for personal expression, love in all its consensual forms, across the barriers of gender, caste, class, ability, religion, region, and language which constrain us,” the organizers of this year’s Delhi Queer Pride March stressed.
