Delhi and the Queer Scene

To be completely honest, I did not expect Delhi to have a queer scene at all, given how invisible non-heterosexual identities (or something along those lines – “identities” may be too western a take on it) are in this city.
However, recently I got an email telling me that Delhi’s first Pride Parade was happening on Sunday, June 29. That’s exciting. And even if it’s only a group of no more than a few dozen odd people, symbolically it is still huge. It may not even be a spot on the Capital Pride parade in DC that I feel so resentful about missing (why, oh why must it be in June?) so far as the flamboyance and extravagance is concerned, but to me, this is a hundred times more significant. For one, this is my city, my country, my people, and things here are just so wrong right now. Section 377 needs to go (or be modified at the very least!). The invisibility needs to go. The stigma, the social pressure to be married to someone of the opposite sex, all of that needs to go!
Then, a theatre group that a friend is involved with is putting up a production of the Laramie Project (just in case you don’t know what it’s about: it’s based on the aftermath of the murder of Matthew Shepard, a Wyoming student, who was killed by two homophobic assholes. Sorry, I was trying to give a reasonable description but that’s all I can come up with. You have to see it to understand). Now, Shepard’s story doesn’t necessarily resonate with Delhi folk because there isn’t very much obvious homophobia (because as I said before, homosexuality is mostly invisible), but I think it’s great that these folks are doing this reading.
Now, I can’t claim I am actually familiar with the queer scene in this city (ok, to be completely honest I am not familiar with any queer scene anywhere outside of my college – and that too, only to a limited extent) but these, and some others, seem to be encouraging developments. A week or so ago, the “Lifestyle” section of one of the major national dailies ran a page on whether Delhi residents could accept homosexual relationships (in light of the legalization of same-sex marriage in California, of course) and while the general consensus was one of disapproval, at least this is working towards removing the invisibility aspect. I hope. One can hope, right?
Though Delhi does not have any gay clubs per se, there are night clubs that have been running gay nights for years, I believe. Tuesday nights at Pegs and Pints are the most famous. A well-known night club in GK 1 also hosts queer nights on Fridays, but that is apparently a lot newer and lesser known right now.
But whatever little I have found out about the queer scene in Delhi through the internet and through other people seems to revolve around gay men. Well, this city itself revolves around men, but still, it bothers me. There has barely any mention whatsoever of lesbian or bisexual women in all the stuff I have looked at. Let’s see what the turn out at the Pride Parade is like – how many women are there, and how many of those women are actually queer and not just fag hags (though technically, I suppose I am a fag hag too, in a major way).
I guess I am just talking about the “scene” for upper middle class folk here, and the reality is much different for other people, that do not even use these labels to define/describe themselves. But then, that is something I am so unfamiliar with that it would be too presumptuous of me to try and say anything about. But whoever, the people are, I hope things change for the better soon. After all, if South Africa can go from homosexuality being illegal to same-sex marriages being legal in as little as twenty years, one can have some sort of hope for India. Then, maybe, when it comes to my (hypothetical) kids’ generation, not only would they not have to face pressure to marry someone of the opposite sex, they might be able to marry someone of the same-sex should they so desire.