Kolkata
Rainbow Pride Walk happened on the 13th of December'2015. Over
2000 people participated in the walk that spanned a distance of about
6 km. The clouds had covered the Sun, but the weather was hot and a
bit unpleasant in mid-December. Ideally we want the weather to be
pleasant at all times.
We
are also fighting for basic primitive rights like decriminalisation
of human sexuality and for improving our support base. So most of the
slogans and messages conveyed were of a basic nature.
The
participation reflected the impact of the patriarchy and related
discriminatory forces. Majority of the participants were women and
most of them, in my opinion (am a femme lesbian), were butch.
Lesbians formed a substantial part of the participation. At least
some of them were not members of rights groups, but went all the way
to create their own posters - this strategy appeared to be Zapatist
in essence. Not surprisingly a substantial number of lesbians were in
the 18--30 age group. I can say this much because I was at
various positions of the moving group, observed the gender expression
and other parameters of many participants, also made new lesbian
friends, did not have to carry posters/flags for more than 10
minutes, and could compute with collected data.
Vocal
slogans were in Bengali (local language). The structure of one
of these slogans translates into "I am in love with a woman.
Everything about the love is well justified and morally correct.
" (followed by analogous versions for other
sexualities).
Apparently nobody brought enough of specific
pride flags. Only rainbow flags and colours were on display. That
seems odd especially when other issues of intersectionality like
caste and tolerance were addressed. We should bring out all the
colours in future.
People of various gender identities
were present at the event. But labels were missing - that is the
wrong strategy to use. One cannot guess the gender identity of a
person unless the person's gender expression is coherent with their
identity relative society. To break stereotypical associations, it is
necessary to demonstrate the associations between identity,
expression and sexuality - at least in reports in the media. This is
particularly important because most of the public have poor
understanding of gender identities and the concepts of gender
identity, expression and sexualities are functionally
interdependent.
Some of the messages being conveyed were
of the form "we want to differ a bit from the decadent
prescriptions of normal behaviour". Then there was this
reflection by a participant about the event being so nice in the
context of the perennial hate that they had been experiencing in
life. These expressions concern concept formation in possible schemes
of understanding human rights.
I therefore guess, the
grounds of solidarity across such a wide spectrum were in:
This
land is not ours, it does not belong
This water is not
ours, it does not belong
This air is not ours, it does
not belong.
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